chart. that does it for us tonight. rachel will be back on thursday. don't forget, you can check out my work at wonkblog.com or follow me on twitter at twitter.com/ezraklein and on facebook, facebook.com/ezraklein. have a great fourth of july and and happy fourth of july, 2012, everyone. this is msnbc, i'm richard lui. president obama is returning to the white house this morning to host a fourth of july barbecue for military families. he will also mark the holiday by speaking at a naturalization ceremony for military service members. joining us right now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. busy day here at the white house. >> the day kicks off with a naturalization ceremony. >> yes, 25 members of the military will be sworn in as u.s. citizens here at the white house.

president obama will speak at that event. secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano will be a part of that event. a big day here. it's the first time they're going to hold a naturalization ceremony at the white house on independence day. this is the third naturalization ceremony, we should say. it starts off there, then this evening, richard, a big party on the south lawn to celebrate the fourth of july. president obama will be speaking at an event, a barbecue. they have invited 1,700 members of the military, their family, as well as staff members here at the white house, their family member. it's going to be a lot of fun. folks bring their kids, they enjoy a barbecue, brad paisley will be playing here and it all culminates with fireworks. busy day. >> july fourth, different at the white house that the july fourth you and i might have with the president. >> a little bit different. >> slightly different.

the president then tomorrow hitting the road. >> yes. it's going to be his first bus trip, basically of the campaign season. and what's really standing out right now, richard, is that two romney surrogates, tim pawlenty, bobby jindal will be on the road, essentially bracketing the president's bus trip. he's going through ohio and pennsylvania. you can expect to see jindal and pawlenty in those same states essentially delivering romney's message to voters there. we expect the president to talk about the strength of the mesh worker. he will tout what he sees his his accomplishments, including the auto bailout and investing in clean energy and those sorts of things. you can expect pawlenty and jindal to talk about the fact that the unemployment rate ticked up last month. remember, richard, this bus trip falls on the same day that we're going to be getting the june jobs report. >> right. >> all eyes are on that report. you can talk to any analyst and

they say the main issue of this election is still the economy. of course, we spent a lot of time talking about the supreme court cases last week. it's still the economy that analysts believe will determine the outcome of this race. by the way, president obama won ohio and pennsylvania back in 2008 and those states now still very much in play. richard? >> right there in the rust belt as the labor report does come out. we'll see what sort of reaction happens on friday. kristen welker at the white house, thank you so much. >> thanks, richard. >> talk to you later. mitt romney is off the campaign trail but not on vacation from his campaign duties. a photographer snapped this shot of mitt romney meeting with ben rhodes. when asked about the meeting, the campaign told nbc news they have no comment. and in a few hours, governor romney will make his first public appearance of the week. he'll be marching in the local fourth of july parade alongside another potential vp candidate, new hampshire senator kel.

>> let's talk about what kristen was mentioning to us, the president kicking off his bus tour tomorrow. pawlenty and jindal will bracketing with him and rob portman as well, traveling to new hampshire this weekend. no word if he'll be meeting with romney. where do we stand in terms of the what's the messaging we're looking for going forward as the president goes out there and tries to make the message, put the message out there, that romney is a jobs expovertier? >> of course, the message that the obama campaign has been pushing hard from the very beginning is attacking mitt romney's record at bain capital. and as controversial as that tactic has been from both republicans and democrats, most notably corey booker and bill clinton, that's really the lane that the obama campaign is staying in.

and they're sort of attacking bain capital from every angle they can find, their latest political attack ad against romney focused on bain capital investing in companies that ship jobs overseas. and that's -- i think it's a strategy that's really been working for the obama campaign. he's been able to paint romney as someone who's out of touch with middle class voters. >> cynthia, i do want to play an ad. you mentioned that right thousand. president obama and mitt romney putting out more than $10 million of ads this week. let me play you a little bit of president obama's ad here. >> what a president believes matters. mitt romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing u.s. jobs to low-wage countries. he supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. president obama believes in insourcing. he fought to save the u.s. auto industry and favors tax cuts for companies that bring jobs home. >> so jonathan, this message, if

hit well and hit strong, will it be well accepted? we're talking about ohio here as well as pennsylvania. two very strong manufacturing states. >> right. i mean, it's obviously a message that has a lot of resonance with voters in those types of states, the kind of blue collar voters that obama really needs to target. a lot of them are swing voters. at the same time, i mean, there's been some controversy over this attack in the sense that there's not a lot of evidence that romney played a role in deciding to send those jobs overseas. he was -- his bain capital was kind of affiliated or associated with companies that had workers overseas. but there's no evidence that he actually made the decisions to send them overseas. >> those details as we get more and more information on "vanity fair," of course, writing extensively on that this week. when we look at the swing states, though, cynthia, in this messaging from the president, we're also seeing bracketing as

i mentioned at the top here. we see bobby jindal out there, tim pawlenty. this "s" this going to work as we look at the next two days? trying to offset the president as he's hitting strong that economic message and try to balance, if you will, the criticism of him and the economy over the last several years. >> i think clearly both sides want to talk about the economy, both sides are vulnerable in different areas. i think as far as the effectiveness of the obama campaign's focus on bain capital, you know, there was a recent poll on swing states and it showed that 33%, this is an nbc and "wall street journal" poll. it showed that 33% of respondents in swing states said that the more they learned about mitt romney's economic business record, the more negative of an opinion they had for him. regardless of the sman tiemanti

outsourcing or whether or not mitt romney had a role in deciding some of these things, the fact is these negative attack ads are very impactful and they're having a big impact in swing state voters. >> talking about swing states, jonathan, when we look at the messaging coming so far when we involve both of the candidates, one of the questions that comes up is on friday, the president will be in pennsylvania. he'll be in pittsburgh, really at one of the hearts of the rust belt. when we get the report, the president will be out there and will have to react, whether the news is good or bad. >> yes. in fact, the signs we've seen in recent weeks will be troubling with the manufacturing sector. i want to go back to the "vanity fair" piece that you mentioned and that, i think there's a lot more substance to this and we could be seeing a lot more about this on mitt romney. he has an incredible number of investments overseas, including in tax havens like the cayman

islands, and there's a magazine piece that goes into great detail about the arrangements. some of them raise pretty serious questions about, you know, how he's maybe avoiding taxes in some of these situations. so far, romney has not been very forthcoming on giving up his tax returns. certainly not like we've seen past presidential candidates do. and so i think that that is an area focused on his business experience that's going to have more substance to it and more legs than we'll see in the next few weeks. >> jonathan strong, cynthia gordie, thank you both. >> thank you. details on the new agreement with pakistan that could alter u.s./pakistani relations. first, the heat is on. temperatures rise as hundreds of thousands remain without power. we'll get a live report from the weather channel. that's coming up.

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it's tough to stretch the fourth of july into a long holiday weekend this year but people are hitting the roads anyway, even if it's just for the day. according to aaa, more than 42 people will venture at least 50 miles from home, despite the midweek holiday and the brutal heat that's covering much of the east. leslie collins is a travel adviser. smack dab in the middle of the week, does that sort of slow down the receipts within we look at the businesses, the tourist industry across the country? >> i think you'll see fewer people taking the entire week off just to go somewhere for the fourth so probably but a lot of people are still taking to the roads and celebrating the fourth. >> on the flip side, they have two days on both sides. >> right. so yes, for some people it might work out just fine. >> what's the expectation in terms of the receipts?

is it expected to tick up or down. >> in general we're seeing more summer travel in general this year. trip adviser did a survey. 86% of the travelers that will be taking to the roads or skies at some point this summer. that's up from 81% last year, in general, more summer travel. >> where are they going? >> mostly to the united states. within the states -- >> staycations if you're from the united states and other countries are coming here. >> yes, the northeast is the most popular section of the country followed by the west and the southeast. >> tell us about it, right? you're in the northeast, ittette goods busy during the summer. when we look at the economy, though, there's been mixed indicators certainly over the last six months, is that affecting at all expectations? >> we're seeing a few things. the drop in gas prices is making more people hit the roads this summer. we're seeing about 10% more travelers will be taking road trips. that's always a good sign. >> we're looking at airfares going up. >> yes, that's the other side.

with our summer travel survey, 70% of the travelers will be taking road trips, 64% were going to be flying. >> what are you watching when you're looking at the market today? >> well, you're watching a lot of things. i think in general, gas prices is always one -- >> we're glad that's lower right now. >> yes, we're definitely god that's lower. on the national level i think it's about $3.33, $3.34 a gallon. that's good. that's down from april even. >> and that 50-mile distance is pretty typical, i guess? >> yes, yes, i think that's a good distance. >> leslie carlin, thank you so much. >> thank you. maybe you're traveling to new york's coney island. here in the new york area, we have the 97th annual nathan's famous hot dog eating contest. always fun. on the men's side, joe, chestnut weighs in at 210 pounds. he holds a contest record with 68 dogs. he says this year he wants to eat enough to win. for the women, sonya quts the

black widow" thomas weighs in at a mere 100 pounds. but she's tough. she's going for 45 dogs in just ten minutes. good luck to both. after college, i moved back in with my parents. i was worried about 'em, you know? i mean for instance my mom went to bed tonight before making my dinner.

which is fine, i mean i, i know how to make dinner. it just starts to make you wonder. is this what happens when you age? my friends used to say i was the lucky one. i had the fun parents. where's the fun now? night guys! [ sighs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] venza. from toyota.

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medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. is your cholesterol where your doctor wants? ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. on this fourth of july there is little freedom from the sweltering temperatures that are gripping much of the nation. it's particularly uncomfortable for the nearly 900,000 people still without power following last weekend's devastating storms across the mid-atlantic. >> i want to take a shower more than anything in my life. i've never desired something more. >> i'm very, very, very hot. i have to sleep in the basement because it's so hot in my room. and like as soon as i get up from the basement, i'm like sweating. >> after some five days, joining us now with a look at what to

expect when you head to that barbecue today is the weather channel's alex wallace. i get a sense, based on the big red thing behind you, more heat. >> exactly. it's not just going to be food cooking on the grill. folks heading outside will be cooking right through the middle of the country and to the east as well. places like d.c. where people still without power. it's going to be another scorching time there as well. the jet stream well to the north. that's keeping the cooler air at this time of the year up into canada. south of it, though, that's where we're watching the numbers creep up. we'll shall talking 100 degree readings as we get in towards this afternoon, places like kansas city, st. louis as well. very, very hot times expected for our day, again, with this massive ridge which doesn't look to be doing anywhere anytime soon. that is the problem. we're talking days and days of this extreme heat to contend with here across the middle of the country. spreading towards the east as well. we'll show you exact numbers and

what we'll be finding this afternoon, from kansas to little rock, the 100s will be in place. we're dealing with 100s in chicago as well. we have heat advisories stretching from the upper midwest and the ohio valley. there you go to the mid-atlantic, including in an around d.c. all the way up to philadelphia where excessive heat warnings in place. heat index values, that's what matters to you, some some cases up to 115. and night time temperatures don't get a chance to cool off at all. we all want to enjoy the fourth of july activities, richard but we want to take it easy out and about. drinking water and staying hydrated. >> and air conditioning. alex wallace, thank you so much. is this wild weather across the country just a fluke or a sign of climate change? that question's been asked. joining us now from london is environmentalist and author

david derothschild. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. happy fourth of july. >> we appreciate that. is this the new normal, the weather we're looking at now, or is this an oscillation over a broad set of data? >> i think the reality is we're going to change what we call the normal. you know, we built our systems around stability of. we're been living in stability for the last 10,000 years here on planet earth. we've changed the make-up of our atmosphere. it was cold this year, everyone says it's warming or it's cold now. now it's hot and what's going on? the reality is we don't have, you know, sort of this norm anymore. we've got these massive swings, excessive heat, excessive flooding, fires, it's really showing that it's out of control. >> as an environmentalist, david, when you look at history,

contextually and empirically, when have we seen this before? >> these are not records we want to break. we're seeing annual rainfall in two days, heat spiking all over the place. so you know, i don't want to be a pessimist but we have to start adaption and mitigating for the changes we're seeing in our atmosphere. we have nearly -- it's a big carbon foot prin, that's thickening the blanket around our planet. that is warming our planet and causing this ripple effect, this knock-on effect. we have to start see politicians talking about mitigation adaption and moving to a more sustainable economy. >> some in some parts of the world you can't even see the sky because of such situations when

you have these pollution storms such as in the southeast asian region. despite what you mentioned earlier, which is many people across the country and around the world have been talking about, boy, it is hotter, it is colder than we originally thought. this is some statistics we dug up from "the washington post" pole that came out recently. only 18% being global warming is the biggest environmental threat. why do you think we're seeing this? >> the reality is, the economy takes precedent. am i going to save the polar bear or keep my job? the cuddly polar bear seems to lose out every time. what we have to start doing is saying it's climate job, we're now talking about energy security. we have to look at pollution, the fact that there's these undeniable human fingerprints. we cannot we're losing fish, our

forests are falling faster than ever, topsoil is eroding. we've seen plastic in our oceans overtaking the plankton in some areas. we have to get out of the idea is how much is man-made, that's a futile debate. we have to concentrate on the human fingerprint. we're at war with nature, which means we're at war with ourselves. >> david de rothschild, thank you. >> thank you. california fighters are battling a new blaze. it's the latest in fires across the west. much-needed relief will om today when 20 tanker planes are deployed to help combat fires in the region which is already suffering from record heat. the deployment comes after four people were killed in a tanker crash in south dakota on sunday. this week, president obama will get another round of crucial monthly jobs numbers. we'll get a preview of that and what they cowl mean for both the president and mitt romney.

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that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. good morning, i'm richard lui. let's take a look at the headlines for this fourth of july. president obama will be celebrating the nation's 236th birthday today at the white house. he'll speak at a naturalization ceremony for active duty service members before hosting a barbecue this evening for service members as well. mitt romney is taking a vacation break to march in a local parade in new hampshire. it's not all pleasure. romney is meeting with top advisers and the aide overseeing his vp search. switzerland, physicists have found evidence of a so-called god particle. it could hold the key to understanding the size and shape of the universe. drivers are getting a break at the gas pump this fourth of july.

the average is $3.34 a gallon. 25% lower than a year ago. patricia, it seems like we don't have to worry about higher gas prices on our economy. do the experts here, do they expect that prices, that they will continue to drop in the coming months? >> well, i don't think they see them really going up anywhere for now, at least. if you look at the energy information agency expecting output to increase by about 7% this year, economic development in the u.s. not doing that great. i think demaned in general will be not going up this year. that's what analysts expect. we have had a glut in gas and that is not going to change anytime soon. >> you know, another item that's been watched so closely, especially this week, is that coming out of the eurozone and the bank bailout that did result in the dow getting a good jump

earlier on. the question is going forward, is this going to be strong enough to maintain that confidence? >> well, i think it was a bit of a confidence circuit breaker we saw of the eu summit last week. i think sentiment has changed since then. i think now the implementation is what is very, very important, indeed. what is on the agenda, what is in the vision is definitely something that's more of a united states of europe, i.e., going forward and trying to converge fiscal policy as well as political agenda in general. that is a positive thing. the implementation, of course, is another thing. that needs to be done asap, otherwise markets may be negative. implications for the u.s. are there. u.s. banks are also exposed to some of the european banks. >> absolutely. >> we have u.s. companies inv t investing directly in the eu economy. if the eu economy is not going well, there will be repercussions there, et cetera,

et cetera. there is also still a risk for the u.s. economy if europe doesn't turn around asap. >> patricia sarvis, thank you. i want to bring in more on this very topic. the presidential campaign being closely watched because of the friday jobs report that is coming out as was just mentioned. i'm joined by political wall street correspondent ben white. ben, patricia was talking about the bank bailout and it's affect on the united states. hit that first and then we'll talk about the jobs report that's coming out friday. >> it's very important for europe to come up with some sort of long-term solution that takes the pressure off the u.s. economy. what the united states wants to see, what this administration wants to see is the big bazooka solution where germany is on board saying we're not going to let any banks fail, we're not going to let any nations fail. we'll take steps to take the pressure off the markets an takes the pressure off the u.s. economy and takes the pressure off president obama.

>> what you saw happen in the last week, did it take some of, all the pressure off president obama? >> it didn't take it all off. it did take some of it off. they want to go forward on mutualization of the european debt. steps that will be taken that says we won't have a cataclysmic failure. >> proing up the banks. >> propping up the banks. >> the jobs report, coming out on friday, the president will be onned road, he's going to have to face the music if he will, no matter which way it goes. we're looking at some of the consensus estimates, 90,000 to 100,000. what's your number, first? >> probably in the 90 to 100,000 range. i don't think we'll get a big disappointments. we had 69,000 last month. that was a disappointment. if we keep seeing the

disappointments, it raises the question, do i have the right policies in place. >> 8.2, up or down? >> flat at 8.2. i don't think we'll go up. we could go down if people start dropping out of the labor force. >> nate silver saying we need 150,000 for the president to actually kind of move forward in a confident way. outside of the issues of the economy, though, might there be an issue that we have not talked about coming internationally? it's also a consideration, the middle east, iran, perhaps israel. >> yes, there's a lot of that on the table. it impacts the oil prices as we were talking about. if iran, there are more problems there, if the straits of hormuz are closed. mitt romney said he's going to go to israel as part of his trip to the olympics. that's intention to cut into the president's lead among the jewish vote. i don't know if he'll be able to do that but he's making an attempt, which matters in florida.

>> the presidential campaigns will be closely watching the friday jobs report. there's also the issues internationally. nato supply trucks, for instance, talking about an issue internationally, are set to start rolling again as a critical supply route between pakistan and afghanistan opens for the first time in seven months. pakistan blocked the route after a u.s. air strike accidentally killed two dozen soldiers. am that -- amna nawaz. >> on the surface it does seem to be that way. certainly one of the key issues was the fact that pakistan demanded an apology and the u.s. continued to stop just short of that, using careful language to say they regretted the loss of life, expressed condolence for the loss of life. yesterday was the first time we heard the word sorry. there have been a number of

issues complicating things, all kinds of things the u.s. and pakistan are still talking about. >> given the anti-u.s. sentiment, though, might there be backlash against the pakistan government? >> i think we shouldn't be surprised if we see some of that. certainly one of the things holding up pakistan's decision to open up the supply lines, was the fact there was a lot of domestic backlash. there. >> reporter: protests, people saying they would take to the streets across the country if the supply lines were re-opened. yesterday, the taliban said they would be attack iing suppliers d tankers that took to those routes. >> how important are these routes? >> these are crucial, crucial routes. the volume has diminished over the past few years but this is the cheapest, most efficient route for the u.s. to move

crucial supplies to the troops. the supply routes used in the past was costing us an extra $100 million a month. this is the first significant step we've seen in a long time towards the easing of relations. there's still a number of issues complicating the relationship between the two sides. analysts are warning us, while this is a good sign, it's a first step. seems the two are committed to moving forward. there's still a good ways to go before we can say the alliance is as strong as it should be. >> thank you. >> thank you. another so-called green on blue attack. a man in an afghan uniform is accused of opening fire on troops in afghanistan, wounding several of them. we're still waiting for details. nato has not said what happened to the alleged gunman. an investigation is under way in that. america mourns the sheriff

of mayberry. we look back at the career and life of actor, tv legend andy griffith. >> i'm lieutenant colonel doug bell deployed to afghanistan with soldiers from the 13th competent decisionary command, ft. hood, texas, with a big shoutout for our friends and family back home. happy fourth of july! whoa!

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look, i'm not telling you how to drive our car. our car? nor where to park her. maybe under a tree with less sap. if you're gonna have a latte in the car, keep a lid on it. it's a cappuccino. still needs a lid. [ male announcer ] the exceptional certified pre-owned program with the highest quality cars. good news for the second owner. take care of my car. ♪ everybody's dad for several generations. this morning fans are mourning the death of legendary actor andy griffith. he was dubbed america's favorite sheriff. he was laid to rest on the grounds of his north carolina home where he died yesterday. there have been countless tributes to griffith, including one from president obama, who called griffith an extraordinary talent who warmed the hearts of americans everywhere.

mi >> he had a long career, more than a half century. he recorded a couple of cds of hymn songs. he was a great songer, monologuist. but it was as the sheriff of fictional mayberry that won mechanic's hearts. mayberry, a fictional place that never maybe existed anywhere but that 35 million viewers tuned in to visit each week. ♪ he planned to be a preacher or opera singer but as anyone who ever heard that opening theme knows it was as andy of mayberry that andy griffith made his undellible mark. >> aunt bea is a sportsman. she's trying to give that fish every chance. >> reporter: everyone respected him for his tolerance and sense of fair play. and don knotts as deputy barney

fife. >> the thing about the andy griffith show, while not auto buy biographical, it was a show of sensibility. >> reporter: common sense ruled and the distinction between right and wrong was clear. >> i still got duties to protect the folks here in mayberry. >> reporter: as griffith said 16 years ago, mayberry had to be invented. >> it had a feeling of the '30s. it was when we were doing it of a time gone by. >> reporter: the show ended its run in 1968, still on top. and griffith had one more hit years later, playing matlock, a southern law with home spun wisdom. he started his career playing a bad guy, the opportunist in "a

face in the crowd." >> i could murder like this. >> reporter: but his subsequent run as sheriff andy might have been too successful. >> it was hard for him to break out of that pigeon hole, the show never went away, constantly rerun, of course. and much loved. >> reporter: the fans visiting the griffith museum never needed him to break away from mayberry. >> wholesome more than anything else. it was a different time period. he seemed to embody that better than anybody. >> reporter: an unforgettable character whose lesson was that insisting on the rules with compassion and caring can always win the day. ♪ >> reporter: griffith died in his sleep and was buried hours later on his beloved family

farm. extraordinary condition and talent. richard. >> much will miss him. thank you. michael phelps dropped one of his events at the olympics but he's not the only athlete bowing out of some competition. we'll preview the key story lines at this year's olympics, next. i'd like to wish my family in augusta, georgia, a happy independence day. i love you. it's my dream vehicle. on a day to day basis, i am not using gas. my round trip is approximately 40 miles to work. head on home, stop at the grocery store, whatever else that i need to do -- still don't have to use gas. i'm never at the gas station unless i want some coffee. it's the best thing ever. as a matter of fact, i'm taking my savings so that i can go to hawaii. ♪

now we're just a little more than three weeks from the start of the summer olympic games and already the excitement and drama are building. jeneba tarmoh is standing by her decision to not take part in a tie-breaking runoff. joining us right now with the latest on the u.s. olympic team is the host of msnbc's olympic coverage, rob simacare. >> she said she felt she earned

the spot already. when the sprint took place she was officially unannounced as the winner. she did a victory lap and got a medal. she walked away saying she had won this thing. a few hours later, actually, the photo shows it was a dead heat. she had to mentally get herself to a place where she's going to run again. she didn't feel like she was up to it. she said my heart's not in a one-on-one runoff and she just decided to walk away and give the spot to allison felix. >> what's the relationship between the two? they both have the same coach, as she said they were taught to lean forward at the finish line, they did so together and came in third together. what's the relationship. >> they have a close relationship. they are training partners, have the same coach. they both said this will not affect their relationship going forward. allison felix does seem disappointed she doesn't get to

run off against her for this spot. >> she said the situation has been difficult for everyone involved. i had accepted the decision and was prepared to run at 5:00 p.m. she went on to say i wanted to earn my spot on this team and not have it conceded to me, so o me so i share in everyone's disappointment this runoff will not happen. seems like something's going on, but maybe i'm reading too much into this. >> she might be seen as she didn't truly earn it. she wanted to earn it and she said she felt physically good enough to run again but didn't get that chance. >> and saying she didn't feel set to do that. do they both have other events? >> they do. tarmoh will still run in the relay. allyson felix will run in other events as well. they both get to make the trip to london, will be part of the opening ceremony. but when it comes to this particular event, it will only be allyson felix.

>> let's go south, jamaica. fastest man in the world, usain bolt, he did not do well. he lost twice. >> which is shocking. the world record holder in both the 100 meter and the 200 meter, who had only lost a couple of times since 2008 in beijing. one of them was because he was disqualified because of a false start. and he lost twice on his home soil to a teammate, johan blake, who now is looked at as a legitimate threat to bolt in both the 100 and the 200. they ran slow times in beau of these. >> right. >> the 100 and 200. it's not clear whether blake's just father right now or maybe bolt maybe was coasting a little bit at the olympic trials. but clearly he has a rival. >> what happened there? >> well, you know, bolt has not run his best over the last few months. let's face it, i mean, bolts was running unbelievable times four years ago. so they saw people working on his legs a lot. he was stretching his hamstrings a lot after both the races. they're thinking he could have some physical issues.

he may just not be in top form. he's got about 30 days now before the 100 meters in london so, he's got a month to get himself both physically and mentally ready to go. he's still a very heavy favorite in london to win both the 100 and 200. the 200 is his better event. but he's got a real rival now. >> everybody watching him as well as michael phelps of the united states, dropping out of the 200 freestyle. >> yes. phelps dropping out of one event, he's still got seven he's competing in in london. to me it shows how incredible what he did in beijing in 2008, winning eight gold medals, eight events. just competing in eight events is is a very did i feel thing. this meet takes place over only about ten days in the olympics. you're swimming competitively three times a day for all that time because you've got to run -- swim preliminary heats, semifinal heats, then finals, so you're in and out of the pool all day long. phelps finally decided, you know what, it's too much.

freestyle has never been his best stroke. he's always been a butterfly guy. that's his strongest stroke. he's going compete in the butterfly, in the individual medley, and three relays. he's not going to be lacking things to do. >> put it in context, he's got a lot ahead of him. >> he's going to end up as the most decorated olympian in any sport from any country of all time. the guy's got nothing left to prove. who can blame him for deciding to drop out of one race? >> we all want to root for him and also for dara torres. we look at that unfortunate heartbreak at the end and the women, as well, because we've been talking about the men. >> put dara torres in perspective here. her first olympics was 1984. that was an olympics that the soviet union was boycotting. and when she swam this week at the olympic trials, she actually was swimming against other competitors, none of whom had ever been born in 1984 when she was in her first olympics. she's 45 years old. she's a mom, and she's had -- >> holding her daughter. >> -- had one of the most

incredible careers of all time in the olympics. swam in five olympics. that's skipping two she could have been in. so she's done everything. now she's decided she's going to sit on the couch like the rest of us middle-aged people. >> would have loved to have watch her, though. you love those stories. so many great stories as you know, and we're looking forward to your coverage starting in about three weeks and the lead-up to that. >> will be a lot of fun. >> no doubt. full coverage of the 2012 london olympic games on the networks of nbc universal begin with opening ceremonies july 27th. governor mitt romney prepares to spend his holiday at a parade, but much of the talk is about who he's spending it with-. it's time to live wider awake.

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good morning. thanks for being with us on this fourth of july. let's get straight to the news.

president obama and governor romney are marking independence day this morning like the rest of the nation with barbecues, parades and fireworks. nbc news white house correspondent kristin welker is live there at the white house for us. the president has a busy day before his bus tour into two key swing states. he's got to concentrate on some grilling, no doubt. >> reporter: absolutely. grilling is a top priority at the white house today, richard. good morning to you. but this day starts off on a patriotic note, certainly. there will be a naturalization ceremony at the white house. 25 military personnel will become u.s. citizens this morning. president obama will speak at that event. secretary of homeland security janet napolitano will also participate. that's how the day starts off. then it ends with a fourth of july celebration here. president obama inviting about 1,700 military heroes and their family members as well as staff here at the white house and their family members to come to a fourth of july party. there will be barbecuing,

grilling, and some musical entertainment. brad paisley will be performing. and then of course it will all culminate in watching fireworks. so a lot of excitement about that. as you said, though, busy day for mitt romney as well. he will be participating in a fourth of july parade in new hampshire. and then tomorrow president obama kicks off his first bus trip. so we're really seeing this campaign kick into high gear here. the bus trip will be called betting on america. president obama will tout some of what he sees as his main accomplishments, including the auto bailout, but make no mistake, richard, he will also take aim at mitt romney. he'll try to draw a sharp distinction with his economic policy and that of mitt romney. by the way, romney surrogates bobby jindal, tim pawlenty, former minnesota governor, will be basically bracketing the president's trip, and of course those are two to potential vp picks for romney. and the president will be in ohio and pennsylvania on that trip. >> ohio, pennsylvania, as you

noted, two key swing states. look back at 2008, the performance there will be crucial to him as he won those two states that year. >> reporter: that's right. president obama won ohio, won pennsylvania, but those states are now back in play. if you look at the polls from those states, they sort of tell a different picture. some polls show president obama's ahead. other polls show that mitt romney is ahead. if you look at the swing states overall. either way, those are two states that are going to be hard fought. it's the rust belt. so president obama will be focusing his messaging on things like manufacturing, the comeback of the american worker. and you will see tim pawlenty and bobby jindal making the opposite point. they will likely focus on the fact that the unemployment rate ticked up last month. and all eyes are going to be on that friday jobs report which is going to come out. if you talk to any political analyst, they will tell you this election will still resolve

around and depend on the state of the economy in november. >> so crucial. kristen welker at the white house. thank you so much. now joined by minneapolis mayor and vice chair of the dnc, r.t. requi r.t.ryeback. happy fourth. >> to you as well. >> kristen was mentioning that key jobs report that comes out on friday. what does the campaign expect to hear? >> well, i think, you know, we always are looking at that jobs report, but we're happy that over these past couple of years, month after month we've had the president continuing to help lead us through a recovery. remember what that jobs report was like before the president came into office. the month before he was sworn in 750,000 jobs a month were being lost. the president made key decisions, one which was highly political unpopular. he saved the american auto industry, the one that mitt romney would have outsourced to

china. that's a key we can kwe that i think a voter has to have in a place like ohio or pennsylvania. >> we were just looking at the numbers over the course of the administration of president obama, and as you are familiar with, when the jobs report comes out monthly, the of tt-used criticism of president obama is the number of jobs lost during his tenu. if the numbers are below expectations, which are 90,000 to 100,000, what will the president need to say to voters to make them feel comfortable that he is in control of the economy and that the jobs situation will get better? >> sure. well, you know, you never know from month to month what will happen exactly in that month. you have to look at the big picture here, which is the fact that when you -- if you can put that into a big chart you'd show all sorts of months of red, red, red, job loss before he came into office. a couple months later after the recovery act kicked in, after the auto industry was saved, month after month after month of

jobs being saved. what happens month to month matters a lot absolutely, especially to those americans who are out of work. but there are scores of americans who are back on the job because of the president. and the answer that i think americans really have to look for is who's going to lead us forward. now, mitt romney has spent the entire campaign, every speech and debate, talking about returning to the bad old days of george w. bush that got us into this mess in the first place. the president's working hard on savinging the auto industry, investing in manufacturing, having companies move jobs back to the u.s. that's the sort of work that he's doing. and these folks -- >> and that message he has certainly beat that drum. the question is whether it's resonating. we have a new cnn poll that came out over the last 24 hours in 15 battleground states that they are watching, and it shows that mitt romney leads the president right now 51% to 43%. so is this message not

resonating? >> well, you know, i think the reality is we really mostly focused on whether people are resonating with their life and are they doing better off now, and it's a tough time. leading the country out of a recession, near depression, isn't easy. but we really have to say who's got the right answers. and is so we'll keep drilling home what the president is doing and keep reminding people that smorm promising to go back to the bad old days, and there's absolutely nothing in his record that shows that he can do the sort of work that the president has done. mitt romney was 47th out of 50 states in massachusetts in job creation when he was governor. he's been an outsourcer in chief who has never shown an ability to really create hardworking jobs here in america. and so we'll keep making the case. i think the president's made tremendous inroads and he loves being out on the road. >> is it that the health care ruling by the supreme court is not perhaps working to the

benefit of president obama, and that's being reflected in this poll? there was another poll that showed that because of the ruling that republican voters are more energized almost by 2 to 1 compared to democrats. >> well, i think those polls have bounced around, and they will. but i think what we saw with the health care ruling is that there have now been three branchs of government that have really made the same judgment, that this is the law, it's a law that's put 30 million people on health care, and i think what really will happen is we'll continue to make the case that do we really want a president who says, as romney does, that on day one his first job is going to be to kick 3 million people out of health care including 17 million kids? so it's a complicated law. it takes a little time to sin income. but i think people really have to ask themselves on day one do you really want a president who's going to get us focused on the economy or mitt romney who wants to fight the same old wars

over health care and say that job one is to kick people off their health care? i don't think people want that. >> mayor, i hope you get up to one of those wonderful lakes you've got in minneapolis. i know the weather is hot. have a great fourth. >> thanks. >> mayor r.t. ryback, thank you again. governor romney will spend part of his fourth marching in a parade. one of his marching partners is talking about the veepstakes. garrett, you know, you're joining us by phone. you're in wolfborough. when you look at what's happening right now, can you make anything of the senator joining romney this morning and the whole veeps stakes discussion? >> good morning, richard. there's absolutely a constant sort of tea leaf-reading effort going on. kelly aya ta, the freshman senator from new hampshire, very popular in this battleground state, will join mitt romney for the first time today.

for the first time we'll see him in the potential short listers. fueling this speculation is a photo i believe you have there. mitt romney yesterday afternoon meeting with some of his very top advisers on the back deck of his home here. included in that meeting is his former chief of stab and the woman who's been deputized to lead the vice presidential search. romney says the only folks who knows who he's considering are himself and beth myers. the fact she traveled up from boston for this meeting with mitt romney has fueled the fires of speculation. if you look at the vp short list speculation, we have senator rob portman from ohio, who's also expected in the state, although not with mitt romney late they are week, for a fund raiser down in concord. and kristen mentioned two of the other sort of hot names on that short list, bobby jindal and tim pawlenty are doing romney's work, bracketing the president

on his bus tour. >> garrett haake, thank you so much, my friend. >> you bet. >> joined by ben wyche. thank you for being here today. >> thank you. >> let's jump off what was said by garrett. what's your thought as he sits down and has that heart to heart on perhaps who will be his running partner? are we expecting some sort of decision soon? >> i doubt it. you don't want to give the big pop before the convention. it will be closer than that. he'll go rob portman or tim pawlen pawlenty. he doesn't want to make a mistake there. he'll go with a safe, well-known name. tim pawlenty is high on the list. everybody likes him. they don't want a sarah palin, anybody who's going to freak anybody out. maybe bobby jindal. >> there's also marco rubio. david, to you on this, it's been said you can't win this election

without the latino vote. >> yeah. very important. and president obama is making a big play over the past few weeks and months for the latino vote. there was a report a few weeks ago saying that the romney campaign wasn't really taking a close look at rubio and the romney campaign quickly reacted and said we are. there's a lot of backlash. rubio is from florida, a very important state. the president keeps going down there and making that play. i think rubio probably is still on-in the outside-running, but as ben said, all eyes are looking he'll maybe focus on the twoer. but keep rubio in mind because he's an important advocate for the romney campaign and surrogate as the months go forward. >> talk about months going forward, ben, mitt romney planning to go to israel. how important, how crucial is this? is he looking at the jewish expat vote? is he looking at the likes of shelly adelson and the important of those foreign policy issues, those international security considerations? >> yeah. there are a number of pieces to it.

one is to send a message that, you know, i can feel diehl with foreign policy, i have gravitas, i can meet with foreign leaders, but it's directed at the jewish vote, particularly in florida, people who might not be satisfied with the job obama has done in the middle east. maybe he hasn't been as much a friend of israel as they would like. a lot of republican presidential candidates have tried to do that. theye made israeli trips before elections and haven't moved the needle that much on the vote. i don't know if it will be successful, but he'll say this president, barack obama, went to israel as a candidate, hasn't been there while in the white house. he'll make that case. >> david, talk to that point because some polls are showing a loss of drinls from the jewish vote here in the united states. >> very important. the president has been talking a lot about this, especially on cam tan trips where he's raising money, jewish donors in new york and other places. what's important for the president is it's trickier for him because as a sitting president, what he says publicly about the middle east, about iran, about israel really takes

a different tone than a presidential candidate as you know. romney can be more critical, probably. the president has to watch his words to some extent, and he's walking a fine line. it has not been easy, but, you know, at the same time, the president's been sort of making the case very bluntly to his donors that he's a friend of israel, his administration has taken strong steps to protect israel's national security. whether that's going to play out in campaign donations and other support, we'll see. >> thank you is so much, appreciate both your time. >> thank you. coming up, what's your citizenship iq? if i can say that. but first, powerless. millions of americans are still sweating it out without electricity in this heat wave. what's behind this wacky weather? >> hi, everybody. joe paydock coming at you from kabul, afghanistan, wishing happy birthday to america. hi, everybody, in cleveland. have a great day. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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i want to take a shower more than anything in my -- i've never desired something more. >> i'm very, very, very hot. i have to sleep in the basement because it's so hot in my room. and, like, as soon as i get up from the basement, i'm, like, sweating. >> it's been tough out there. nearly 900,000 residents across the mid-atlantic are still without power on this fourth of july holiday and are battling oppressive heat. nbc's tom costello has more from washington, d.c., for us. >> reporter: hey, richard. good day to you. the latest estimates we have, about 850,000 people in a seven-state area plus d.c. are still without power and still dealing with this kind of a mess, a massive tree down, the tree crushed, power lines, cable lines, telephone lines still down. and this has been the way it's been now for five days as these

regions try to recover. meanwhile, last night in d.c. we had more lightning and more severe weather. >> severe weather is approaching the capitol. you are instructed to leave the area. >> reporter: late tuesday night another blow from mother nature. at the u.s. capitol, a strong thunderstorm forced the evacuation of a dress rehearsal for tonight's capitol fourth concert. >> we do have a garage where you guys can be safe on the other side. >> reporter: one more gut punch for the nation's capitol region still back on its heels, still buried under downed trees, dodging precarious power lines, and sweltering in triple-digit heat without power or air conditioning. >> left his three children at home to come down here. >> reporter: canadian crews brought in to restore power are getting a hero's welcome in virginia and maryland. in silver spring, maryland, jenni and corey have retreated to the basement with their grandkids. >> much cooler down here.

>> reporter: they drove to pennsylvania to buy a portable generator that powers a fan and keeps the fridge cool, but with reports of generators being stolen, they've got theirs locked up. sandra brown has also moved to the basement. the thermostat upstairs reads 89 degrees and she's afraid to open the fridge. >> i have not opened it because i was under the theory if you kept them closed for three or four days, your food would be saved. >> reporter: health experts say throw it away. five days after the storm, the electric grid is so damaged it could take until the weekend before everyone gets power. can you wait till friday at 11:00 p.m. for power? >> no. but you have to. >> reporter: even before the storm, the biggest power company in washington, pepco, was under intense scrutiny for a pattern of outages. this week, the region's mayors and governors have demanded change. >> nobody will have their boot further up pepco's backside than i will to make sure we get there for. >> but pepco insists the

disaster was an act of god. >> we do take responsibility. we know there are things that have to be change and we're making that effort. >> reporter: the heat wave extend beyond d.c. from the plains to the atlantic, from the gulf coast to the great lakes. in wisconsin it caused highway 29 to buckle, sending this suv flying. extreme temps on this july 4th and a massive cleanup still well under way. believe it or not, those two people in that suv were uninjured, although they did have some neck and back pain. health experts are urging people to please check on resident who is may be elderly, who may be sick. they are especially vulnerable in this kind of weather. and if they don't have electricity, of course, it can be miserable. but, richard, ill's going to be a very hot and sticky day here in d.c. and through much of the country. back to you. >> rough going there. tom costello, thank you is so much. no rest for the weary as cleanup crews work to try to repair the power in the sweltering heat. joining me is david owens,

executive vice president of business operations for the edison electric institute. good day to you. thanks for joining us on this july 4th, david. >> thank you for having me. >> the customers in the street, we saw so many pictures of them trying to stay cool. they're probably saying it has been five days, there are close to a million of us that are still without power, and a this heat is killing us. david, can can you hear me? >> yes, i can. yes. this was a very intense storm. it was a super derecho where we had wind traveling at very high speeds. it toppled a lot of trees. it took a lot of our substag sus out of service. overall, 4.3 million customers have been impacted by this. it's covered a ten-state area. right now we have 30,000 crews, 30,000 people that are fully devoted to restoring electric service to customers. a very, very intense effort.

unfortunately, this was an act of god, and you can't predict these kinds of storms. with a hurricane, you can anticipate a hurricane and you can stage crews. but with this one, it was totally unexpected. >> and we must note, and you were saying that, that it started with over 4 million. you're now down to about a million. ou have 3 million that have regained power and most of those cases able to return to their homes and return to their places of business. >> yes. 75% of customers have been restored. our top priority are our customers. and bringing service back to our customers a priority has to be safety and reliability of our systems. a lot of the trees have damaged power lines. if you're seeking to restore service, you have to remove those trees, you have to repair the substantial damage to equipment that's occurred, and it's a very slow process. >> david, when do you expect those 900,000 individuals to get

their power back? what's the target date right now? >> well, there are varying estimates. we are very, very optimistic and hopeful that we can have power restored to all our customers by the weekend. but we need to have mother nature cooperate with us. if p you have other intense storms, that, in fact, could affect our restoration efforts. >> we sure do hope so-and-so do many of them. thank you for your hard work in trying to get them back into their homes. david owens, appreciate your time today. >> thank you. in the past ten days, more than 2,000 heat records were matched or broken across the country. here to break down why we're seeing these dramatic weather situations is christopher field, professor of environmental earth science for the carnegie institution for science. what's your thought here? why are we seeing so many extremes? >> good morning, richard. good to be with you. we know that the climate has changed in the united states. the weather that we're seeing is a reflection of that climate, and every weather event reflects

some mix of natural variability and the climate change that we've already seen. >> and for you when you look at the data, how unusual is this spate of droughts when we look back west, high temperatures when we look east, and then of course we have strong storms and later on in the year we'll see mud slides and as all of this affects the various areas in the west it will even get worse? >> when we look globally, we're seeing increasing trends in several important kinds of extremes, extravel times of high temperatures. some places are seeing increases in the length and severity of droughts. and many places are seeing an increase in the fraction of rain that falls in the heaviest precipitation events, the kind of precipitation events that cause floods. we're really seeing these trends as a reflection of the climb change that's occurring globally. >> when you trend this, what are you seeing in the next five to ten years? >> you know, what we're seeing

is is the odds are shifting. think about it like speeding in a car. when you're speeding you increase the odds of an accident. when you put more energy in the climate system you make it warmer overall. you're increasing the risk of the kinds of extreme events we've been seeing. >> when you look outside of the united states, is this also a trend that you have seen? >> the trends in high temperature extremes and length and severity of droughts and in heavy precipitation are observable at the global scale and in many parts of the world. certainly the u.s. is not alone in having experienced a severe heartwrenching disasters related to weather over the last several years. >> christopher field, thank you so much. >> thank you very much. um next, london calling. who's in and who's out as we count down to the olympics. plus, would you pass a citizenship test? we quizzed a few americans about their country. stay in the moment sanya focus lolo, focus let's do this

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a we count down to the olympic games, all eyes are on the basketball team. the men's training camp opens tomorrow, but two stars will not be there. dwyane wade has been sidelined with injuries and lamar odom says he won't play this year. joining us with a look at who will be on the team is bob simmelkjaer. thanks for coming back on this. when we take a look at this, who's going and who's not that you've been watching? >> there's not going to be any shortage of talent on the u.s. team. >> i wouldn't think so. >> kobe bryant, lebron james, kevin durant from the oklahoma city thunder is going, carmelo anthony, deron williams, who just re-signed with the now brooklyn nets. they'll have a great roster. the only issue they potentially have is they don't have a lot of big men up front. you mentioned lamar odom announcing he's not going. you could argue he wasn't playing all last year in the nba, he had a tough year. >> right. >> dwight howard is not going to be going. so they don't have a lot of big men. they're going to have to rely on probably a guy like blake

griffin, now with the l.a. clippers, who people are starting to get to know, the great dunker and highlight reel maker. also they're looking at anthony davis, just coming out of college. he's got a little better shot to go. they need some size up front, but the bottom line is the team is stacked as far as talent is concerned and they're going to be a heavy, heavy favorite going into london as they are pretty much every year. >> who will be their biggest challenger? >> i think you look at the usual teams. spain clearly with pau gasol and, you know, they've got a pretty deep rost tler. they'll be a strong team. argentina with manu ginobili is always tough as well. they'll have a couple teams to give them a run. >> shift to another team, the women's gymnastic team. nastia liukin, though, who had a lilt built of a fall. >> well, you know, there's a short shelf life in gymnastics. you get your one olympics to sort of shine and nowadays that tends to be it. nastia liukin, who of course won the all-around silver in beijing had a terrible fall at the trials on the uneven bars, missed the ball, ended up falling flat on her face, then

showed some guts getting up and finishing her routine. but that did her in. so she's not going to go to london. she's probably done. >> but the team looks good? >> they do. you have a young team with a bunch of 16-year-olds, basically. jordyn wieber, who is really a potential gold medal winner all around is going to lead that team. you've got gabby douglas. you've got a young kyla ross, as well. they've got a very deep team. they won the gold at the world championships just in 2011. so they're going coming off of that performance. i think most people would look at the u.s. women as a pretty decent favorite to win gold in london. >> when the trials ended, i was, like, can't wait for the olympics. you'll be following that for us. thank you so much. the 2012 olympic games begin july 27th on the networks of nbc and on nbcolympics.com. still to come, what's really behind the tom-kat breakup? and summer scorcher. an update on the wildfire ls.

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we watch the hundreds increasing around d.c. and richmond and raleigh. what a week for these people without power in the ohio valley, the mid-atlantic. endless heat day after day. it looks like our heat is going to break. there's a sieve lining. it looks like by sunday we should see a cold front bringing some thunderstorms to middle of

the country. that will lower the temperatures in areas like st. louis and indianapolis and all through the mid-atlantic region, too. it looks like the ends of this heat wlaef come this weekend. but not for today. there will be a few showers and storms for new england. it rained this morning. boston and new york. that is leaving us. you'll have a lot of sunshine during the middle of the day. it will be very hot and a little humid and a few pop-up storms late today. i think in d.c. and new york your fireworks displays will get off no problem whatsoever. as far as the rest of the country goes, richard, the one spot in this nation that has been very cool and just shaking their heads, wondering where their heat is, is the pacific northwest. it's been a miserable cool summer for seattle and portland. finally today they're back in the 70s. imagine 70s? that's like winter in the plains. >> we could only hope for the 70s in the west. they're saying, hey, that's kind of warm for us. bill karins, thank you so much. >> all righty. >> paul summerfeld is an officer near the canyon fire. he joins us live by phone

looking at some of the weather conditions in that part of the country. when you look at this, paul, this is a fire that was 6,000 acres on monday. what's the status you're seeing right now of that fire? >> well, currently the fire is a little over 7,000 acres. it's 50% contained. and actually we were very fortunate yesterday. we had a little precipitation in that area, and so control is being looked at to be effective probably tomorrow evening. >> what about wind conditions? that's tallas other criterion that you follow. >> we do. the downdrafts from the summer storms are the biggest concerns for us at this point. but so far those have not materialized and caused any real control problems. >> how are the firefighters doing at this moment in containing the fire? it increased from a week ago or at least since monday as i was mentioning from 6,000 to 7,000 acres that are burning at the moment. how are they holding up throughout all of this time they've been fighting fires? >> well, fairly good.

the concern, of course, with fire resources anywhere in the country is that the longer the season goes the more fire activi activity, fatigue becomes an issue over time. and that's certainly the case this year with the active fires we're having throughout the west. >> and at 50% containment, we're hearing you're also sending some of your resources to other parts of the west that have been hurt. >> we are. we have actually since early may were heavily engaged with fire resources from this area on fires in both arizona and new mexico. and about mid-june began to shift to chose resources to fire activity that was occurring in colorado and is now continuing in that state but also in utah, wyoming, south dakota, and nevada as the fire season just moves north. >> all right. best of luck to you, my friend. paul summerfelt, appreciate your

time today. >> thank you very much. would you pass a citizenship test? we took to the streets to find out what americans do and don't know about our country. plus, america's most explosive party. the woman who reigns over the macy's fourth of july fireworks will be here. >> this is lieutenant colonel laura bozeman with a training mission in afghanistan in kabul sending happy independence day greetings to my family and friends in colorado, alaska, and minnesota. ♪ why not try someplace different every morning? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred. trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies.

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good afternoon. chase sapphire. (push button tone) this is stacy from springfield. oh woah. hello? yes. i didn't realize i'd be talking to an actual person. you don't need to press "0," i'm here. reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire. call it the super bowl of speed eating. 40,000 spectators are expected in coney island, new york, today, in new york, rather, today for the famous nathan's hot dog eating competition. reigning champ joey "jaws" chestnut is looking to defend his title in the men's contest for the seventh year in a row. he holds the world record for eating 68 hot dogs in just ten minutes. let me just be frank, this is

quite a contest. all right. i'm quoting mayor bloomberg. all disclosure there. can you name the two longest rivers in america or how many members serve in the house of representatives or how about in which war dwight eisenhower served as a general before he was president? those are a few of the questions that could pop up on a u.s. citizenship test. so msnbc's alex wagner took to the streets to do an impromptu citizenship test. >> who is in charge of the executive branch? >> no idea. >> that's our president. >> president of the united states. the potus. >> the potus. >> i'm not sure. >> the president. >> the president. >> i don't know. >> what territory did the u.s. buy from france in 1803? >> the louisiana purchase. >> it's the square one. >> the louisiana purchase? >> kind of rectangular. >> louisiana purchase? >> was it wyoming?

>> louisiana purchase. >> yes, you are right. what are two rights in the declaration of independence? >> the freedom to bear arms and the freedom of speech. >> bear arms. i don't know how -- freedom to bear arms? you can move on. >> life, liberty, and -- >> the pursuit of happiness! >> we should move on. >> the right to life and the pursuit of happiness. >> can you name one thing that benjamin franklin is famous for? >> oh, something about electricity, flying his kite, and spectacles. >> flying his kite and electricity are good one. >> bald head. >> bald head? >> electricity. >> electricity. >> best thing that he did was he made the u.s. post office. everybody, was, like, we shouldn't have a post office. we don't need to communicate. and he's, like, you people are dumb, i'm going to make one! and he gave it to everybody for free. he was awesome.

>> not such a great man, benjamin franklin. >> not such a great man. real talk. >> you can't really judge people. it's easier to be a quarterback, like, on a monday. >> he's from philadelphia. >> are all people from philadelphia famous? >> no, they're not. >>s something else. >> he has a liberty bell? >> has a liberty bell? >> rang the liberty bell? >> he rang the liberty bell. >> he's a libertarian. >> he's on the $100 bill. >> yeah, he is. can you name these four people? >> pelosi, sheen, rihanna, and romney. >> nancy pelosi, charlie sheen, mitt romney, rihanna. >> i'm not even voting for him but i can't tell you his name. >> she looks like a politician. >> that guy is also a bad man, and i do not remember his name but i know that he was on 2 1/2 -- oh, charlie sheen. >> two men? >> rihanna. that's charlie sheen. i don't know those two. >> rick perry. >> how about this guy? >> he's winning. i forget his name, though.

>> what is mitt short for? your choices, your choices, a, mittens, b, mittoski, c, grommet, or, d, none of the above. >> was three grommet? is that what you said? definitely not grommet. >> it's not mittens. >> mitchell. >> matilda. >> mittens? >> is it mittonski? >> i'm going to say none of the above. >> d, none of the above. >> correct. it's not short for anything. >> whooo! >> whooo! that's right. great stuff, alex wagner. you can catch alex every weekday at noon eastern on "now with alex wagner." she has to do more of that stuff. millions of people are expected to stream into new york city for the macy's fireworks display. it will include roughly 40,000 ariel shells launched from barges in the hudson river.

joining me is the executive director of the fireworks show. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> i'm plooking forward to this. tell us about the preparation for this. it's 25 minutes? >> it's a 25-minute show, the single biggest fireworks display in america. in new york you'll see two miles of entertainment take to the skies. we've got four barges and 40,000 shells that will be exploding over the hudson river. >> all right. so it's an amazing display. how many people does it take to put this together, and how long do you prepare for it? >> we spend all year working on this show. the macy's thanksgiving day parade and the macy's fourth of july fireworks we run parallel paths planning both. the run-up to the show takes about two weeks to put it all physically together. all four barges have to be packed by hand and individually wired so it's about 40 people doing that for the full two weeks. >> the concern is that's a lot of variables. how do you guys test for that? is there any safety concerns or

concerns of it not happening as you had planned? >> well, you know, it's all run by computers these days and we've got 13 computers that are individually programmed to launch each one of those shells. so we're not too concerned about any failure with those computers. it happens on occasion, but the problem is fixed almost instantaneously and the barges are waterproof as are the fireworks. if it's raining like it is today, we have no concern about the show going off. >> how much does this cost? >> for you it's free and for the american people it's free. >> yeah. >> it's fun. it's our gift to -- >> but to macy's, how much does it cost? >> it's the gift that we give back is -- >> you're not going to give me the number. >> i am not. >> amy, how does this compare? you were also the executive producer of the thanksgiving parade. >> yes. >> how does this compare in terms of complexity and time invested? >> you know, the parade has more people involved. we have about 10,000 people on the streets of new york bringing that show to life. you're intimately involved with

that program as it's going down the streets and as it continues until santa comes through camera. for this show, the buildup is really before hand, and once that show starts at 9:25, you really just want to make sure the barges are are where they're supposed to be, that everything is going off as it is, but there's little you can do other than sit back and watch. >> the design phases, also include the stores in this process as well. >> we promote in the stores of course. we've got 850 stores across the country. this year we took the planning of the fireworks to the people outside of our boardroom. so generally we work on this creatively with our little group, but facebook -- >> we've got to go. give me a tease of what might be really interesting tonight. >> 15 colors, 30 shapes, kenny chez knee, katy perry. it's going to be the most amazing show anybody will see. >> amy kule, thank you so much. >> happy fourth of july. >> 236 years old we are. >> yes. >> macy's fireworks at 9:00 p.m.

in new york and 10:00 p.m. across the country. remembering andy griffith. we'll look back at his life and career. we're at the legendary southfork ranch in dallas for a cookout with world champion grill master brett gallaway. he's serving his guests walmart choice premium steak. but they don't know it yet. they will. it's a steakover! the steak is excellent. very tender... melts in your mouth... so delicious... tonight you're eating walmart steak. what? it's good steak. two thumbs up. look, i ate all of mine. it matches any good steak house if not better. walmart choice premium steak in the black package... it's 100% money back guaranteed. try it for your fourth of july barbeque.

andy griffith are still pouring in this morning. griffith of course died yesterday in his north carolina home at the age of 86. among those paying respect was president obama, who credited griffith with inspiring entertainers and fans for generations. brian baltizav editor of "pop goes the weekend." who else is remembering griffith? >> you mentioned president obama, who released a statement saying he was a performer of extraordinary talent loved for generations. but i thought jerry seinfeld had a great tweet that says the reason every seinfeld character greeted someone with hey, name, was a secret tribute to the andy griffith show. he's being a little comedic saying anytime they say hi to

someone by their name, it's a tribute to andy. obviously, ron howard yesterday saying great things. he was a national treasure to a lot of people, and i think it's fitting he was in north carolina where he was born, where the andy griffith show was set, and where he now rests. >> so many watched that series throughout their childhood, regardless of age because of the reruns that were always played. >> right. >> a subject that's very different, and this is the breakup of tom-kat. everybody where we're reading says scientology may be involved. >> she was not originally a scientologist. she was roman catholic. she started to take an interest in this religion when they started dating. now it's being reported that this is, in fact, what's dividing the two. this is apparently also the age where suri, now 6, would become more educated and kind of trained in the ways of scientology, and they're saying that may have been a pivotal moment in katie's decision to say, hey, i'm jumping ship. >> 33 years old and three marriages, those numbers that

have come out. >> all three of his now soon-to-be ex-wives all were 33 when they split. mimi rogers, nicole kidman, now katie holmes. is there some significance to that? anyone knows. but that number has come up apparently in scientology, but, you know, another thing about scientology, unless you're in the actual religion, the church, there's a lot that is -- >> fairly close lipped. >> yeah. >> very mysterious. there are also those discussions that have been going on for quite some time as to the contract that perhaps existed between the two of them. >> right. >> is this the expiration date? what did it involve in terms of auditions earlier on? >> well, from the beginning there were reports saying this was a hook-up. it's not unusual for a celebrity to be arranged to meet a different celebrity. this one is unusual is saying there were auditions, some walked away from the idea and katie reportedly embraced it. some say she would get $3

million for each year of marriage but some reports say that is not the case. >> you traveled with them recently. >> i traveled with them the year that this engagement was announced. when he was promoting "war of the worlds." it was a free-for-all, and even then there were a lot of raised eyebrows about the legitimacy of this relationship because of the oprah on the couch, the craziness, it was sudden and swift and over the top. now i think this is not the most surprising development we've seen in hollywood marriages. >> everybody's talking about it. brian, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> that does it for me this hour. stay with us. after the break, we'll look at swing state polls and gas prices, two factors that will be at play in the november election. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today

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and a groundbreaking announcement. the head of the world's largest atom smasher says scientists have discovered a new subatomic particle. richard lui. very good day to you. we begin with top political headlines. president obama will spend the fourth at the white house. he begins his day with remarks at a naturalization ceremony for active duty service members. an hour from now, mitt romney takes a break from vacationing at his $8 million lakeside estate in new hampshire to narch a parade in wolfeboro in his first campaign appearance of this week. he will walk alongside senator capitol hill ayotte, fueling speculation about the opening spot on the gop ticket. the independence day festivities at the white house kick off in two hours with the president's live remarks following the naturalization ceremony in the east room. the president and first lady will hold a barbecue on the south lawn. the first couple will host

service members and their families with food and fireworks. today's fourth of july celebration at 1600 pennsylvania avenue comes just one day before the president kicks off the first bus tour of his re-election campaign. nbc news correspondent kristen welker joins us now live in the white house. he's got a busy day ahead of him. >> reporter: he certainly does. it starts off with that naturalization ceremony. 25 active service members will be sworn in as u.s. citizens. the president expected to make remarks. secretary of homeland security janet napolitano will offer the oath of allegiance. they're coming from all different countries, so certainly starting the day off on a patriotic note. remember, this ceremony coming about three weeks -- a few weeks after the announcement that they would block the deportations of about 800,000 children of immigrants. that's how the day begins at the white house. it caps off with that fourth of

july celebration. about 1,700 military heroes will be here with their families as well as staff here at the white house with their family members. a big barbecue. brad paisley will be performing, and then of course it all culminates with the fourth of july fireworks. and then as you said, tomorrow president obama starts his first bus tour of this campaign season to the big battleground states of pennsylvania and ohio. he's going to make several stops starting off in a small town in toledo, sandusky, akron, ohio, and ends friday in pittsburgh. richard, by the way, mitt romney is dispatching two of his top surrogates, tim pawlenty, former minnesota governor, and bobby jindal, governor of louisiana will be heading to the similar places as president obama to essentially bracket his trip. of course they are two potential vp picks. so two key battleground states and it all starts tomorrow.

richard? >> two key battleground states. the economy is such an issue there and those states which they have a very clear and long manufacturing history. what will the president's primary message be as he looks at being aggressive towards a romney campaign and pushing his message forward? >> reporter: well, the bus trip is going to be called "betting on america." president obama will be talking about the revival of the american worker. he'll be talking about the auto bailout. of course one of the things that he sees as one of his signature achievements. themes that really resonate, richard weather the voters there in the rust bell. but of course tim pawlenty, bobby jindal will have quite a different message. they will be honing in on the fact that the unemployment rate has been above 8% for the past 40 months. of course it ticked up last month. and this all corresponds with that jobs report that we're all waiting for that will come out on friday. and if you talk to anyone, they say that this economy will still

be determined -- this race, i should say, will still be determined by the state of the economy in november. >> kristen welker at the white house, thank you. the president's re-election team is blasting mitt romney over a potentially explosive new "vanity fair" article about mitt romney's rather obscure financial history. it delves into the offshore accounts revealed in documents that romney was first reluctant to release during the primary. they write, romney, like the superhero who whirls and back flips unscathed through a web of laser beams while everyone else gets zapeds, is certainly a remarkable financial acrobat. but careful analysis of his fipgs and business affairs also reveals a man who, like some other wall street titans, seems comfortable striding into some fuzzy gray zones. let's bring in david nakamura, white house reporter for t"the washington post", and sean sullivan, senior editor for "hotline," the "national journal's" politics blog. david, the article talks about accounts in bermuda,

switzerland, the cayman islands. i want to bring in first romney's reaction during a january primary debate when he was called out by newt gingrich. take a look and i'll get your reaction. >> i did say i thought it was unusual and i don't know of any american president who's had a swiss bank account. i'd be glad for you to explain that sort of thing. [ applause ] >> okay. i will. i'll say it again. i have a trustee that manages my investments in a blind trust. that was so that i would avoid any conflicts of interest. that trustee indicated last week when he was asked about this, he said he wanted to diversify the investments i had, and for a while he had money in a swiss account reported in the u.s., full taxes paid on it, u.s. taxes. there's nothing wrong with that. >> so david, you know, romney said this was a blind trust and that he didn't know the accounts were offshore. how does this play into that narrative that romney is secretive and not just rich but super wealthy and somewhat out of touch? >> well, richard, that's exactly what the obama campaign has been trying to paint him as. the problem for romney here is that polls show that, you know,

while people have questions about the way the president's handled the economy and maybe think romney might have better ideas, people don't know romney that well. the president's likability ratings are still high. right now president's campaign is trying to define him, so you have stories like this. these issues have been out for months. "vanity fair" took a much deeper look at this and really raises more questions than answers. that is problem because the mystery around romney and what is going on with these personal funds plays into that narrative obama campaign keeps saying that romney is a good business man when it comes to making money for himself and his friends but not necessarily for common folks. that's the damaging part of this. >> sean, is it damaging enough, though, to affect what's happening with what independent voters are thinking, specifically in swing states? when we looked at recent polls that came out in last 24 hours from cnn and their 15 battleground state, it showed romney was ahead. >> yeah. it absolutely is potentially very damaging in those states. what it does is it distracts from what mitt romney wants to talk about. we have a jobs report coming out

on friday. he wanls s wants to talk about economy and put the focus on president obama. but his campaign is forced to answer questions and offer explanations and it adds to the obama campaign's nary they've romney is different from most americans. most americans do not have swiss bank accounts or offshore accounts in bermuda and other locations around the world. and so for the obama campaign, if they can paint him as somebody who's different from ordinary americans, different from the blue-collar voters in ohio and pennsylvania and the states that obama's going to be focusing on late they are week, that's a plus in their mind. >> but is it working, david? i mean, there was some evidence, preliminary evidence, when the president campaign started to take on that tone and message that it started to see a little bit of a turn in some key states. is there evidence that you've seen that this messaging will work? >> yes. you know, this was brought up a few weeks ago as we know from

some of the obama surrogates and others. a few question the strategy. but i think the obama campaign never doubted it. they have their own polling and there's other polling that show that people have questions about who mitt romney is, what he's all about. the romney campaign needs to work harder on defining that. they definitely attacked the president's work on the economy, but, you know, what ideas does he have and how is he going to make the difference here? that may help play into, you know, sort of mute some of this stuff. although i feel like with these particular documents and accounts, as long as they keep them hidden it's not going to be easy to get away from this. >> sean, there's an interesting revelation in the article. i want to read just a klim for you. it says, "though he left the firm in 1999 romney has continued to receive large payments from it. in early june he revealed more than $2 million in new bain income. the firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the cayman islands and romney himself has personal interest in at least 12 worth as much as $30 million hidden by hind controversial

confidentiality disclaimers." this revelation can't be good for romney especially give than experts on both seeds say obama's attack on romney is picking up speed. >> they are picking up speed. we saw another ad from the obama campaign earlier this week sort of pressing this narrative, which is he's the outsourcer in keefe and when he was at bain, you know, his economic interests were his main interests and some of the companies they invested in suffered and suffered layoffs. in the "vanity fair" piece, you know, the author sort of looks into some of that stuff. this is not good for him. he doesn't want to be talking about bain. he wants to be talking about the economy. he wants to be talking about the president's record. and every minute that's spent scrutinizing this stuff, every bit of attention that goes to this is a minute he's not talking about the latest jobs report and he's not talking about what the president is doing or not doing on the economy right now. >> digging into that new "vanity fair" article, thank you so much, david, as well as sean. >> thanks. >> thank you. coming up, nearly a million

americans still without power for the fifth straight day and they're sweating it out this fourth of july. first, developing news out of germany this morning. five people are dead after a gunman barricaded himself in an apartment and took several people hostage. the hostage-taker was facing conviction wednesday morning after failing to pay his rent for several months. the victims include a bailiff, a locksmith and the owner of the property. police tell nbc the shooter is among the dead. is winning tos hands down! with beautiful tones and highlights... no other foam lasts longer. and no other foam is product of the year. check out colorblend foam. only from nice'n easy.

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it won't be much of a celebration today for millions of people because of suffocating record-breaking heat. still, triple-digit temperatures and severe thunderstorms are predicted today for a large chunk of the east, south, and upper midwest. making things worse, more than a

million people across seven states and washington, d.c., are still without power because of last weekend's storms. and dozens of cities and towns have canceled their fireworks displays because of the dry conditions. the weather channel's alex wallace joins me right now. alex, i understand when you take a look at the numbers we still might break some records today. >> absolutely. that is certainly a possibilities for many areas from the midwest back into the mid-atlantic as well. we've got the heat issues that are going to be impacting us over the next few days. let's show you what we have. advisories stretching from the midwest all the way into the mid-atlantic. we've got heat advisories as well as excessive heat warnings. some temperatures will be from the 100 to 105 range. what it will feel like, getting up to 115, just brutal there. of course a lot of folks will be out there trying to enjoy their july 4th, so it will be a tough time. let's check the rain conditions in the east. you can see the green on the map. thunderstorm activity possible from boston towards d.c. going to be a hot one in the neigh's capital as temperatures

reach the upper 90s. farther south, also seeing some storms throughout the southeast, tampa, you'll be dealing with that, upper 80s expected. look at memphis. 100. of course it will feel a lot worse than that when you factor in the humidity. moving into the upper midwest, the chance for storms across the northern tier could be there in the twin cities but south of there it's just going to be down right steamy. st. louis for you 104 for the afternoon. in fact, st. louis, expect hundreds over the next several days into the weekend. the southwest we're starting to see a little bit more moisture creeping in on here. with that, we have the risk for showers and storms. phoenix, that will help keep the temperatures down just a bit there. finally in the northwest, this will be one of the quieter areas across the country. i think i take 70 in seal, sunshine there, richard, looking pretty good for the fourth of july there. >> that's warm for them in seattle as well as san francisco. we will take a 70 back east anytime. alex wallace, thank you is so much. it could be slow going on the road the next few days.

triple sashgs predicting this will be one of the most traveled fourth of july holidays in the last ten years with without 36 million drivers hitting the roads. aaa saying lower gas prices are one reason why. its fuel gauge report puts today's average at $3.34 a gallon. last month looking at this number it was $3.59 a gallon and last year it was $3.57. joining me from washington, d.c., is michael green, spokesman for aaa. you know, michael, we've been watching these numbers, and, you know, what we understand is 84% of the number of people who are traveling this week are hitting the roads. and we normally see prices higher when it comes to gas. >> yeah. absolutely. today's national average price of gasoline, like you said, is about $3.34 a gallon. that price varies pretty widely from state to state. in fact, some of our listeners out in the gulf coast are already seeing gas prices below $3 a gallon whereas people in alaska and hawaii are still paying more than $4. now, the good news is that

prices have dropped about 61 cents a gallon from the highs we saw back in april of this year. in fact, prices have dropped so much that we're really only about six cents up for the year. prices have not been as low as they've been since january of this year. now, there is some bad news for people who are driving today, driving out to the beach and going out to watch fireworks. and that's that this year's july 4th xw tth gas prices are the t highest that we've ever seen. >> really. >> in fact, as of yesterday, prices have gone up for two days in a row. the price increase has only been about a cent, which, you know, taken into consideration isn't that much, but it's an important indicator because before that time prices had dropped about 75 out of the last 77 days. so that means that we're starting to see a potential reverse in the trend of prices dropping. >> so what do we expect for the rest of the summer? as i mentioned at the top, michael, we normally expect to see prices go um. we have the third highest right now. but we are seeing a bit of a

drop. when we look forward to the end of the summer, what's being forecasted? >> well, predicting gasoline prices is a lot like predicting the u.s. presidential election. >> sure. i'll ask you that after this, about the presidential election. >> so with gas prices what we are seeing is that generally about two-thirds of the price of gas is tied to the price of oil. so what this means is if you see oil prices rise or fall, gas prices inevitably are going to rise and fall as well. so last friday oil had its fourth largest daily increase ever. oil was also up yesterday as well. inevitably we'll see gas prices go up. what it means is for the summer prices are probably going to remain pretty high and pretty steadily high, just like those temperatures outside. >> who's going to win the election? >> you know, did i feel as predicting the gas prices. >> i'm not going to make you answer that. have a great fourth. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you very much. we're focused on color and race when we should be focused

on preserving the future, preserving this country. >> that is mia love, the woman who's creating a buzz in the gop. she's a smalltown mayor who's hoping to become the first black republican woman in congress. details next. first, here's a look at the faa's travel delay tracker. looks like it's all clear. did you know that america's second president, john adams, wrote that july 2nd -- he wrote on july 2nd, not the 4th, that was the day that john hancock signed the declaration of independence? did you know that? according to adams, the country has gotten the date of america's independence wrong for 236 years. my volt is the best vehicle i've ever driven. i bought the car because of its efficiency. i bought the car because i could eliminate gas from my budget.

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there's a republican star rising in utah, in a state where the african-american population is about 1%. mia love stands out. she's a young, fiscally conservative mormon who also happens to be black and she's running for congress. love caught the attention of republicans after blowing out her competition at utah's republican convention. in november she will face a tough fight against six-term democrat jim mathison many what has become one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country. nbc's craig melvin went out to visit her and has more. >> good morning to you. a lot of folks probably don't know her name just yet, but it's mia love. she's creating quite the stir within the republican party, generating sorely needed buzz and excitement in a gop long cite si criticized for its lack of diversity and inclusiveness. the trail-running native new yorker who has adopted utah as her home and converted to mormonism as a religion is about to do political trail blazing.

love is set to hit the political big time as she makes a historic run for congress, perhaps becoming the first republican congresswoman and at the same time becoming the first new face of the gop. >> reporter: this is quite the hill. >> oh, it gets worse. >> reporter: mia love is the running, gunning -- >> how's it going? >> reporter: -- glad-handing mayor of saratoga springs, a town of 20,000 just outside salt lake city, utah. you love this place, don't you? >> i love it. life is just great out here. >> reporter: the 36-year-old became the republican nominee for congress in utah's fourth district. now, love is running the race of her life. a win in november means she'd make history, the first black republican woman ever elected to congress. but that's not what she wants to talk about. >> we're focused on color and race when we should be focused on preserving the future,

preserving this country. >> reporter: you don't talk about a race a lot, do you. >> i don't, because it doesn't define who i am. >> reporter: in a town more than 90% white, her constituents don't mind either. >> i think it's wonderful that she brings some culture and diversity to the plate. >> her race is not an issue to me. >> reporter: she'd rather be be known for her brand of conservativism, rooted in her mormon faith. >> i support marriage between a man and a woman. >> reporter: and her haitian parents' immigrant upcoming. >> i watched two people achieve the american dream, work hard. i'm a product of that. >> reporter: she'd vote to shrink programs aimed at reducing poverty, cut spending, simplify the tax code and overhaul popular programs like medicare and social security. >> i think my opponent reps views that are way out there. >> reporter: for 12 years congressman jim mathison has represented the most republican district held by a democrat snop you know my past. it's not the politics i was raised on.

>> reporter: he's the son of a former governor and admits love's story is compel bug not her politics. >> i don't think you tell families who are counting on social security to be there, want to support someone who says we should phase out social security. i don't think utah families who value college education want someone who says we should stop doing federal student loans. >> reporter: but utah political experts aren't sure how much things like this will matter. >> there's a sense by some of these mormon republican voters that electing a black republican woman will demonstrate that whatever people say about mormons and their history with race, maybe it's not so true. >> reporter: love says she's used to slogging up hill and knows this will be a long, hard race. >> i believe we are going to win and we're going to win decisively. >> reporter: the gop has big plans for mia love with outside money rolling in to her campaign. she'll be heading to the convention in florida. despite her rookie status, she could become the new darling of

the republican party. >> when you look at this, the question many might ask, because she's not served in national politics, is she ready? >> that's the question a lot of folks are asking. we talked to a number of constituents out there and that seems to be the number-one concern. the town where she is mayor very small, 20,000 folks. she has not necessarily demonstrated a mastery of all of the issues just yet. polls, we should note, there's a recent poll that had her about 12 to 15 points behind, but our political brain trust in d.c. puts her chances at about 50/50 especially with mitt romney at the top of ticket in utah and that congressional district has been redrawn as well to her advantage. >> some bat lol halo perhaps. one thing she's mastered is beating you in running. >> well -- >> you were even. >> and we had to ed it as well. she is used to running at high altitudes.

>> have a good one. up next, mitt romney makes his first public appearance of the week with a senator who is on his short list. a live report from new hampshire. and in just a few day, george zimmerman will learn whether a judge will release him on bond. so let's make our dryers do the ironing. have our fridges cater our parties. and tell our ranges to whip up dinner. let's plug in to summer savings before they're gone... ...without wasting an ounce of energy with smart machines that turn housework into house play. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, save $600 on this maytag french door refrigerator, just $1,598. throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day women's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age.

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comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged. here's a look at som other stories topping the news. the most destructive fire in colorado history has become up with of the costliest. the waldo canyon wildfire has destroyed $110 million worth of homes so far, this according to an analysis by the "denver post." meanwhile, 20 tanker planes were deployed to help combat fires in the region. the deployment comes after four people were killed in a tanker crash in south dakota on sunday. the judge in the george zimmerman murder trial is set to rule on whether to release or keep the 28-year-old in jail tomorrow. george zimmerman is on trial for the february 26th murder of 17-year-old trayvon martin. zimmerman was previously out on

$150,000 bail, but it was revoked after the court found that he and his wife lied about their finances. the jetblue pilot who left the cockpit during a flight and screamed about religion and terrorists has been found not guilty by reason of insanity. a federal judge in texas ordered that the pilot be sent to a mel facility for further examination. he was indicted on one charge of interfering with a flight crew after the march 27th incident on a flight from las vegas to new york. for the first time ever, americans can test their hiv status in the privacy of their own homes. after decades of controversy, the food and drug administration approved the new test on tuesday. the at-home test uses a mouth swab and gives results in 20 to 30 minutes. to be clear, there were hiv tests available previously, but consumers had to send the tests off to a lab for results. mitt romney and the whole romney clan are enjoying their fourth of july together at the

family compound in lake winnipesaukee in new hampshire. in between the jet skiing and volleyball, major campaign decisions are being made. we turn to garrett haake who comes to us via phone via wolfeboro, new hampshire. happy fourth of july. >> happy fourth, richard. >> you've literally got news on the march and with a possible vp candidate no less, right? >> that's right. yeah, for his first public event in about a week, mitt romney is about to take part in a wolfeboro fourth of july parade down main street and he'll be joined by snorkelly ayotte, the freshman senator from new hampshire, considered about a dark horse vp candidate but on the presumed short list nonetheless. the latest nbc poll in new hampshire has them in a complete dead heat. her inclusion may help with that. they'll be marching down main street in about 20 minutes. >> we have the bracketing going on with jindal and pawlenty on the road, too, and those are a

discussion in the veepstakes. >> absolutely. with the president's bus tour taking place later across the rust bell, you're seeing republicans dispatch tim pawlenty and bobby jindal, both who have to be considered high on that vp short list as well given governor romney sort of only two public hints of who he might select. he said that he wants somebody who's ready to take over right away and is qualified to be president. both of those men are two-term governors. and he has expressed a preference for governors in politics in general because hay make the big executive decisions. quite a bit of veepstakes speculation. say that five times fast. swirling around, particularly after this meeting yesterday. there was a photograph from romney's back deck in lake winnipesaukee here with beth myers, his top campaign aide, coming up to new hampshire. she's in charge of the entire vp process for his team. they had a meeting yesterday along with the campaign manager. >> garrett, my tough pronunciation is lake winnipesaukee. we have our words for the day.

take a look at this. there's a recent nbc/marist poll that shows new hampshire is tied. other polls have put obama ahead. is the question is, is he going to be doing any hard campaigning in that state now or in the future to try and change the balance? >> this is a state romney folks would like to win. he won in the primaries even after the missed call on iowa. he's owned a house here for almost a decade. he was the governor next door. this is the place they could really make an inroad into flipping some of those obama states from the map four years ago. in the next few weeks we're not expecting a lot of campaigning in this area. the next two weeks look like a lot of fund-raising and a couple big speeches including one to the naacp group in houston. make no mistake, there will be plenty of campaigning in new hampshire for the romney folks late they are fall. >> and you'll probably be there. nbc's garrett haake with mitt romney in new hampshire. have a good fourth. >> thanks, sir. romney has a lot of decisions to make in the coming

weeks if he is to win enough swing state voters away from the president. they include health care and whether to take the advice of two famous ceos and shake up his election team. that last decision comes after romney's senior adviser contradicted members of his own party and said the mandate definitely was not a tax. >> the governor believes that what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was tax. >> that comment flies in the face of those like rnc chair pree vis who says yes, it is definitely a tax. >> our position is the same as mitt romney's position. it's a tax. >> let's turn to democratic strategist richard goodsign and msnbc contributor robert traynum. thanks for being here on this july 4th. robert, start with this idea of a campaign shake-up. it was seconded by news corp. ceo rupert murdoch and ge's ex-ceo jack welch.

i should mention msnbc is still owned in part by ge. to the question, is it that bad that some people need to go and a shake-up is necessary right now? >> good morning, richard, and happy fourth.i'm not sure a big shake-up is in the news anytime soon. every person quarterbacks from the armchair. we've heard the same type of comments with the obama campaign this time four years ago that there needed to be a shake-up because the inside circle, if you will, was very insular and very -- too tactical and too analytical. we heard the same exact thing when i was working on president bush's campaign in 2004. this is what happens when the armchair quarterbackers do not like exactly what the candidate and the presumptive candidate is supposed to do. i don't necessarily think governor romney is going to change his tactics or staff. he's very loyal. i don't anticipate any type of change anytime soon. >> however, when we look at this, richard, there's the issue

of this being the second gaffe. there was the etch-a-sketch comment before that. you add this into the mix. is it time for eric to be changed out? >> you know, it's funny. when candidates start failing, people talk about staff change and the fact is it's the candidate, not the staff that's the problem here. and i think that whether it's rudy giuliani or you name i, they can't really bring themselves to say to the candidate's face, look, you're not getting it done. the image is hardening of you of being richie rich. what people are starting to hear about you regarding swiss and cayman accounts, outsourcing, looting companies, and you walking away with millions while people in the tens of thousands are losing their jobs in health care and pensions. that's not good. but that's not eric furnstrom's fault. that's the candidate's fault. it goes to the fact he seems almost constitutionally incapable of giving a straight answer to questions.

instead, he tries to kind of baffle them with bs. i don't think that is a four-month-long strategy that can work. >> rob snert. >> i want to go back for a second originally to your question. here's the problem that mitt romney has. he has governor is on record as s sayinging that the massachusetts mandate is not a tax, it is simply a penalty. if he was to come out today or yesterday when the supreme court made its recent announcements, a couple days ago, and says now it is a tax, he would then be labeled as a flip-flopper. what he's trying to do here, and it's a very interesting needle he has to thread, he has to remain consistent with his past comments on a mandate whether it's at the state or federal level. i'm not sure what this has to do with cayman islands and offsite, you know, trust funds and so forth. >> let's stay on affordable care act. what does romney need to do? he probably wants to move on from this very issue, but we have the vote that's going to be coming up in the house next week. we've also got these mixed signals. and we know the issue of the replaced part of the repeal has

not been very well defined. >> well, if p i could respond to that quickly, if you take a look at the latest kaiser poll, 44% of americans do not believe health care reform is the number unissue right now. the majority of americans out there says health care is important but the most important thing right now is for me to have a job. the economy is the number-one issue right now. i think governor romney is pretty smart saying, you know what, this is important, but it's not the number-one campaign message i want to talk about. if you look at what the white house is saying, they want to foift the economy as well. both the republican candidate but also the incumbent president do not want to talk about health care. >> here's the problem with that. mitt romney has two things he claims as his calling card, one being governor of massachusetts, where this was his signature accomplishment and he's walking away from it, butting aside the 47th out of 50th on job creation and the number one on debt creation. so that's not working for him. and bain is not working for him. you say what does this have to do with offshoring and swiss

accounts? it's because those are the two things that he went to the public and said elect me president, i can do a better job than the incumbent because i was governor and because i had all this experience as a businessman. and in both regards he's losing. so that's why there's the perception that it's a staff -- well, no. the fact is -- >> 20 seconds, then we have to go. >> all the polls in every swing state show he's losing ground. >> i'll remind you the latest battleground polls in every state show governor romney is neck to neck with president obama. that's a fact. >> worse than he was a few months ago. >> richard goodstein and robert traynham, thank you. researchers have found the strongest evidence so far that the so-called god particle does exist. fi a professor will tell us why this is such a big deal. and more fourth of july trivia for you this wednesday. did you know three of the first five u.s. presidents died on

independence day? they were john adams, america's third president, thomas jefferson, and the fifth president of the united states, james monroe. but the 30th president, calvin coolid coolidge, was born on the fourth of july in 1872.

we're back with a major breakthrough. after months of tension between the united states and pakistan, islamabad has given nato the go ahead to move supplies across the border. in a statement, secretary of state hillary clinton said, "we are sorry for the losses suffered by the pakistani military. we are committed to working closely with pakistan and afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again." nbc news pakistan bureau chief joins us here in new york on

this fourth of july. amna, was this widely expected? >> well, richard, we knew that something was in the works. this statement yesterday is the result of months of negotiation between the two sides on a number of issues, not just this apology that much has been made about but also on the cost of containers traveling those supply lines, on the terms of usage of those routes, also on the drone issue we've heard so much about, also on military operations in waziristan, the area bordering afghanistan. there are a number of issues back and forth. both sides had hoped some kind of agreement would be reached soon. those are crucial supply lines for the u.s. finally that came to an end yesterday with secretary clinton's statement. >> amna, the united states was using routes in russia and china during the blockage. explain to us why this is important strategically when we look at not only the operational capabilities on the ground but also when we look at the issues of policy between the countries and the united states. >> that alternative route that

you mentioned is known as the ndn, the northern distribution network. it is longer. it is more costly for the u.s. to use. and it was costing the u.s. about an additional $100 million a month to travel goods via that route. so the fact that pakistan has reopened these supply lines, they are cheaper, faster, easier for the u.s. to use, and that means serious savings for the u.s. as for the relationship, i think it remains to be seen how things move forward. certainly both sides have said they welcome this move. it's a significant step forward to repairing relations. but those relations have been badly damaged over the last year. so we'll wait to see what comes next. for now, both sides say they're optimistic and committed to moving forward. >> nbc news pakistan bureau chief amna nawaz. it's called the scientific discovery of a lifetime. scientists at cern said they have all but proven the existence of the so-called god particle. their discovery is a significant

step forward to solving the mystery of how the universe is held together. >> as a layman, i would now say, i think we have it. you agree? [ clears acheers and applause ] >> joining me right now is a professor of sfiz physics at the suny university of new york, the author of "physics of the future" and host of "sci-fi science" on the science channel. good to see you. what is the god particle if you can give us an analogy? >> well, champagne bottles are being cracked open around the world because this new particle, the higgs, we think was instrumental in helping to set the universe into motion. you know, the bible says god said let there be light and there was the universe, genesis. well, if it was a big bang 13.7 billion years ago, what set off the bang? >> right. >> what helped us set off the explosion? we think the higgs particle could be the key to that.

>> it's the match? >> it's the match which set the fuse which then let up the big bang and the expanding universe we see today. >> we saw in that video this is a big deal to the scientific community. >> that's right. $10 billion, 30 years worth of work, thousands of physicists around the world have spent their life spans, their professional careers working to prove that there was this higgs boson. it's the last missing piece of what is called the standard model, but we now hope to get-go to the next level. we hope to find new forms of matter like dark matter, perhaps higher dimensions, perhaps evidence of a multiverse of parallel universes. this is just the beginning of a new branch of physics. >> so is this the big deal? we now know how the universe started? we have a way of looking at this scientifically, whether it be from a perspective of religion or science? >> well, we now know with 99.9999% confidence that we have

banged the higgs boson. the higgs boson in turn allows us to explain why the universe was set into motion. now, we think that several higgs particles were responsible for actually creating the big bang itself, but this is the first of the higgs to be discovered, and that's why it's a milestone. >> when you've discovered it, do you have any sense of the timing, how long the bang took? >> well, we think that the instant of the big bang took place in trillions of a second, but it happened so long ago, 13.7 billion years ago, we had to create new instruments in outer space to be able to detect the first moments of the creation of the universe itself. but here on the planet earth, outside geneva, we're able to re-create some of the conditions that set off the big bang. >> you'll be busy in the coming years, aren't you. >> that's right. this is just the first step to unlocking the secret of why the universe banged. >> all right. professor kaku, thank you so much. very interesting stuff. coming up, what's hot and what's not on the big screen this summer. here's a hint -- my spidey

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you have to get out of there right now, okay? >> it's there. >> no, no, connors is on the way. he's coming to you right now. >> there's eight minutes. >> there's only eight minutes after what i just told you. >> i'm going to get everybody out. >> spidey's back. katy perry and oliver stone is out with "savages."

which holiday movie should you see and which should you skip all together? with me is "intouch" editor kim serafin. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> should we spend our fourth watching spidey? >> i think so. this is such a hotly contested movie. even if you saw "spider-man" with tobey maguire, it's say great take on it. andrew garfield is great as spider-man. >> and it's all-stars? >> i'm sorry? >> packed full of stars. >> martin sheen, emma stone. they have such great chemistry in the movie. it makes sense that they have such great on-screen chemistry. >> are the special effects different? how would you compare it to the first series? >> really good special effects.

visual effects have gotten even better. you have the typical spidey spinninging through the streets, climbing up buildings. even better, it's 3-d, of course. go see it in 3-d, it's a little better than the one of years ago. >> california dreaming katy per? >> i'd say go see this. it gives me a little bit more about they are background. about who she is. how she grew up. there's a lot of interviews. i told you about her family. and of course, this took place during her concert. but also as the breakup with russell brand was happening. so you have the dynamic of her going on stage as the barbie doll, cotton candy queen and then dealing with the heartbreak of russell brand. >> she talks tab in the movie? >> yes, she lets you in. she's such a savvy businesswoman. you get a sense. she put in $2 million of her own money to make this because she

knew this was going to be a big hit. i think girls, women of all ages will like this movie for sure. >> tell us about something people shouldn't see. >> well i don't know. "savages" opens on friday. this is an oliver stone movie. if you like oliver stone, go see it. it's going back to his gritty roots of "natural born killers" type movie. sal salma hayek, john travolta. this is definitely a different cay movie from "spider-man." and other movies that opened, last weekend, "ted." >> that's doing well? >> much better than expected. it's a teddy bear, not a cuddly teddy bear, a pot-smoking swearing teddy bear. >> we all like that in a teddy bear. >> if you haven't seen it yet, definitely go see it.

>> great stuff as always. kim serafin. >> thank you so much. coming up for you next, i'll talk to a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old brother and sister who did something big to help our soldiers overseas connect with their families at home. stick around. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. for a cookout with world champion grill master brett gallaway. he's serving his guests walmart choice premium steak. but they don't know it yet. they will. it's a steakover! the steak is excellent. very tender... melts in your mouth... so delicious... tonight you're eating walmart steak. what? it's good steak. two thumbs up. look, i ate all of mine. it matches any good steak house if not better. walmart choice premium steak in the black package... it's 100% money back guaranteed. try it for your fourth of july barbeque.

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the president and first lady will spend their day at the white house. they will host a bash crew. no north carolina democrats are declining to endorse the president's run for re-election. congressman larry kissel and mike mcintyre both represent districts with more republican voters after redistricting. president obama will hit the road tomorrow for the first bus tour of his re-election campaign. the president's first bus trip will take him to the swing states of ohio and pennsylvania. while on that tour, the president is expected to shift the national debate become to the economy and off last week's ruling on the affordable care act. this has a poll found that more americans disaprove than approve at 36%.

joining me say political reporter for "the washington post." felicia, you got red going on for the holiday, i see? >> yes. >> we'll start with you, the pew poll out is also asking people for one-word reaction for the ruling. you can see here, disappoints at 65%. and surprised also at 65%. when you look at this felicia, is this issue still who politically radioactive for the president to even mention it on the trail and he wants to move off of it as just mentioned? >> well, also, i think it's something that they would rather not dwell on as the main issue in the campaign. i think what's important to note, another number in the pew survey which came out this week which is 45% of americans are unsure of the way the court actually ruled. with that many, people are not who clear on the substance of the ruling suggests that something that maybe this is, yes, some are throwing out those words, having stronger opinions one way or the other, a vast

majority of people, certainly a large chunk of them are not clear on what happened for them. >> what's good for the goose not for the gander here it appears. it shows that the difficulty that will have confronting obama on an issue when the campaign is dogged by its own candidate date's past. the hope for romney, his issue is to stay away and get back on the economic issue, isn't it? >> i think it's about every issue, every topic that's come up on the campaign trail. romney and his advisers have steered it right back toward the economy. they think that's where the president is weakest and they have a lot of reason to think that. not only are people sort of questioning whether or not the president has the right agenda to lead the country out of the recession, but, you know, they see mitt romney and he has that business background. >> alex, does mitt romney have an opportunity here, there was a

recent poll by the keiser family foundation that shows this energized republican, the issue of the affordable care act of a ratio of 2 to 1, compared to democr democrats? >> here's the question, there's no doubt the republican base is energized. that's good for a candidate like romney, she doesn't necessarily store a lot of passion in the conservative base. it also shows that the political moderates or independents they kind of want to move on. >> 62% of them said that. >> right. the saga has been going on for three years. they might not be necessarily unhappy about how it ended up, but their feeling is we've had this debate. let's talk about fixing the economy. >> let's say they say, let's move on, it's july 4th, and that's the debate. felicia, over the next few days, the president is expected to intensity his act on romney being an outsourcer of which is

the focus of the new obama ad. and the strategy focuses on the romney bain record as well. have they pound a way to combat romney's business record as has been the criticism of the president's economic record? >> actually, you're going to see this week, as you mentioned the president son his jobs tour, on a two-day bus tour. when the numbers come out on friday, i think you're going to see two different reactions from the obama team and the romney team. the romney team will likely focus in on a microlevel of what is the trend, how many jobs were actually added over the month of june, versus where they were in january. that was one of the biggest months ever. in may, we saw that was a month where the fewest number of jobs were added, about 70,000 over the past year. the obama campaign will likely zoom out and make it into a bigger picture argument, as you mentioned, make a case against mitt romney that he has

supported outsourcing in the past. this is not just something that he's done but as they said in the campaign, it's actual that he actually believes. and that will be their way to pivot away of what's not likely to be the most optimistic jobs report coming out friday. >> talk about friday, alex, the consensus right now is 90,000 to 100,000, we come out below that consensus, what does the president have to say. he will be on the road in pittsburgh on that date. it will be tough for him to avoid any camera. >> sure. look, i think the truth is there really isn't much they can say. you see that even in the the last few months, with the disappointing jobs report in april and may, the message has not claimed. they've basically said, look we've come a long way. we still have the recession that i inherited it one of the deepest in the country's history and it's going to take a long time to slug it out. i think the interesting thing is, the obama campaign seems to have momentum the last couple of weeks.

if you look at the supreme court ruling. the ads they're running on bain, seem to have an effect on romney, in places like ohio. all that momentum can be punctured in a minute with the jobs report. that's kind of like that for the obama campaign. that's the reason if the president, if he's going to win, he's probably going to win a close race. the economy is still in tough shape. and voters doubt whether or not he's the right guy to lead them out of it. >> you know, to switch gears a little bit. part of that close race, the swing states, we've got florida. with florida, we got the latino vote. as has said, no candidate can live after the latino vote. moveon.org just put out an ad -- take a look. >> some latinos are getting letters in the mail saying we have 30 days to approve. if the teams don't vote, mitt romney wins. the purge is not only against the law, it's racist. so why won't mitt romney condemn it? >> felicia, opt iics aren't goo

on this? >> no, not at all. it's something that's furthering an argument that a lot of groups are making it when it comes to focusing on immigration. it's something that it's a small issue in the grand scheme of things. concerning the economy being the issue here. it's still something that motivates a lot of voters. when you look at the conference late last month, you have president obama and romney giving competing speeches there. the reaction to obama was enthusiastic, and supporters of his that i spoke to there made it very clear they were motivated because of the positions that mitt romney has taken in the past on immigration during the gop primary. i think ads like this movie on.org ad is one that is tapping into the sentiments of the latino voters. it's something making the romney campaign hard pressed to counteract here. >> as you know, mitt romney did

have a gap to fill there. and he certainly did get some play, but not as much as the president. felicia and alex, you guys have a great fourth. >> you, too. before the president kicks off his bus tour, he has a day of celebration at the white house. just under an hour from now, the president is expected to deliver remarks for active duty servicemembers in the east room. we'll be watch that. then this afternoon, he and the first lady will hold a barbecue on the south lawn for military men, women and their families. nbc correspondent christen walker is celebrating at the white house. maybe if you're good, you can get into that barbecue or a dog or a hamburger? >> i hope so. they started cooking. as you mentioned, richard, the day starts with that naturalization ceremony. this is the third naturalization ceremony to take place at the white house. but the first to actually take place on the fourth of july.

of course, it coming just a few weeks after president obama announced his administration would block deportation of immigrants who came here illegally as children. obviously an important voting bloc. so there's certainly political undertones to that as well. but the evening caps off with the fourth of july celebraon on the south lawn. military heroes, their family members, staff members here at the white house, and their family members will all be in attendance. they'll enjoy a barbecue, as well as a mini concert and the spread making remarks and of course, the big highlight, the fireworks, richard. >> as you look past the fourth here, christen, is there anything key that we should be watching as the president hits the road over the next couple of days? >> he travels to two battleground states, ohio and pennsylvania, as you all have been discussing. and that job reports that is coming out friday i think is the thing that everyone is watching.

president obama will be talking about the economy on the two-day trip, through the two key battleground states. he's going to try to draw a sharp contrast between his vision of mitt romney. he's been hammering romney for being a corporate raider. he's sending tim pawlenty and bobby jindal, two potential v.p. picks who will be with the president's trip. they will point out that the unemployment has been above 8 in the last few moss. richard. >> a lot happening on the friday that we'll be watching. nbc's christen walker. thank you. >> thank you. the heat is on, americans from the midwest to the atlantic are sweating it out. but no one knows more than those with the storms who are still without power. your fourth of july forecast coming up.

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officials are warning people to stay out of the heat today. fearing more deaths after last weekend's destructive storms. forecasters are expecting suffocating, record-breaking heat, ununfortunately. thunderstorms in the east, west and just look at the map. more than 1 million people are in the states and washington, d.c. without power because of the storms. dozens of towns have canceled their fireworks displays. maria larosa joins me now. what are we looking at today, it looks like a lot? >> unfortunately, richard, it is a lot. a lot of people, a lot of heat, a lot of humidity and that's adding together for what you mentioned, dangerous heat. take a look at what we're looking at as far as records go. it is amazing. from madison, minneapolis, to

chicago. forecasting 101, you can count on that humid tie making that heat index that feels push way above that. raleigh, d.c., looking very close to the record high, 100 degrees on this july 4. the dominant pressure holding in place, that's not going anywhere, so the heat is not going anywhere. it's going to be an issue for thursday and friday. chicago likely getting above 100 as well. the problem is, if you're not on that northern fringe of that high pressure, that heat is going to linger. places like chicago, though, you are going to break the 90s by the weekend. that's good news. >> maria, la rosa, thanks very much. on this fourth of july, americans are getting lower gas prices. 36 million drivers hitting the road. aaa said lower gas prices are one reason why. it puts the price at $3.34 a gallon. last month, we were paid $3.59 a

gallon. last year, it was $3.57 a gallon. but aaa says it's going to inch up again. with jobs numbers due out friday and weak manufacturing numbers. joining me is brendon morgan of forbes magazine. let's start with the job reports. that's coming out on two days. the numbers are not necessarily the best? >> they're not necessarily the best. right now, economists are predicting we're going to see jobs growth of 80,000 to 100,000 for the month of june. these are rather low numbers if it does come in at 80,000 to 100,000, we're looking at a 2.2% rate which is flat from the month before. >> we were in the 200s before, 259, 275 in january. now hitting really low numbers,

nate silver saying we need 150,000 for the president to feel good. but the economy is steady and growing. what are some of the indicators you've seen in may, for instance, that might give us an idea of what we're going to see here? >> in may, we saw paltry growth. 69,000 jobs added, and that was way below economists' expectations. we actually saw the numbers lowered for the months before that. the second month in general has been really weak where jobs growth is concerned. that's why economists have basically lowered their projections for friday pipe hope we see 100,000 jobs added. i'm not sure that will be necessarily the case. we've seen jobless claims tick up and manufacturing lower. >> they would stay the same? >> yes. >> dragging on this is coming out of the eurozone. we had good news in the week because of the bailout in the eurozone, but there's unemployment there, too? >> there's unemployment, too. 11.1% right now.

tomorrow, the european central bank is meeting as well. they're talking about monetary policy. the rumor is they're going to slash interest rates for banks. this is going to hopefully increase confidence in the e.u. >> mixed into it are gas prices. the polls sometimes do vote on gas prices and they're at a good low right now? >> they are at a good low. 60 cents off the april highs. that's good news for people traveling this week, that said, and you mentioned aaa. we're starting to see that price tick up. we can expect to see that price tick up in the summer. the reason being, there's have been are renewed tensions with iran, that's causing a boom in the price of oil. >> sure. speculators get nervous? >> yeah, speculators get nervous. we're seeing the price of a barrel of oil has come up $11 since friday. that has a direct effect on the price of gas.

i think we'll see the price rise. still 30 cents lower than we were. join it while you can. >> morgan, thank you so much from forbes. up next, why liberals are worried about a roberts rebound this fall after the chief justice's vote on health care. but in 1884, the u.s. got one whopping of a birthday president from france. it was the statue of liberty. france shipped 151-foot statue in hundreds of little pieces and it took four months to assemble. ♪ [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost.

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roberts' surprise crossover on the health care law has given him a free hand to craft and sign on to a slew of conservative opinions next year without suffering much of a public drubbing. in one major case roberts may have inoculated himself and the court against charges of partisanship. end quote. pete williams joins us now following all the breaks news over the last couple of weeks. pete, good to see you. >> richard, good to see you. >> as you know, there are quite a few blockbuster cases. affirmative action. same-sex marriage, voter i.d. laws and the health care act. what are the ideas that we mentioned coming out of politico, that roberts' decision on those may allow him to go the other way. >> i'll leave the psycho analyzing to others as to why the chief justice did what he did on the health care law. the fact is, there are a number of cases that's going to make it as big as this one.

affirmative action, nine years ago, the supreme court said colleges could consider race in judging a student's application. that case will be before the supreme court again this coming term. and the lineup of the court has changed. sandra day o'connor was a key vote when the supreme court upheld affirmative action. she's gone. replaced by samuel alito. who takes a dimmer view on affirmative action. and the chief justice said the way to avoid makes decisions is to make avoid making a decision on race. three years ago, the supreme court came that close to striking down a major part of a voting rights act that said states with a history of discrimination have to get permission from the federal court before they make any changes in any voting procedures. that one is hanging by a thread. and the supreme court will look at it again. then another big issue before the court is the gay rights.

this in the guise of defense of marriage act. the law signed by president clinton which says for federal purposes marriage can only be before a man and a woman. just yesterday, the justice department asked the court to take the case. last friday, republicans asked the court to take a case from the northeast involving a challee in which a federal appeals court struck it down. said it was unconstitutional. right there, richard, you have the makings of another blockbuster case. the supreme court is by no means shying away from controversy. >> you would be a busy man in front of the supreme court. >> i hope so. >> before we let you go, pete, there's been rumblings about other elements on the health care act that might be challenged not including the mandate? >> well, sure. there will be other -- you know, what we just went through was a challenge to the law overall. undoubtedly, we're going to see smaller, more surgical attempts

to get pieces of health care law struck down. whatever those are, i can guarantee you they're not going to be have the supreme court. >> tyeoman's work over the last few weeks. pete williams, thanks. cell phones for soldiers. meet the two young folks who helped soldiers connect with families back home. and romney marriaching in a parade. it's not all relaxation for him. we're expecting to see president obama very shortly. he'll be speaking at a naturalization ceremony. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

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the tour bus was on the way to fox meadows casino in flushing, queens. the most destructive fire in colorado history has now become one of the costliest. the waldo canyon wildfire has destroyed $110 million worth of homes so far. this according to an analysis by the "denner post." meanwhile, 20 danker planes deployed a day to help combat fires in the region. a fire official gave me the update just minutes ago. >> the fire is a little over 7,000 acres. it's 50% contained. and actually, we were very fortunate yesterday, we had a little precipitation in that area. and so, control is being looked at, to be affected probably tomorrow evening. researchers at cern have discovered a particle that resembles the higgs boson.

10,000 scientists have been working in the $10.5 billion large collider facility looking for this particle. scientists have confirmed that 2 is indeed the higgs. it verified that would help verify how galaxies hold together. those of you hoping to meet a mermaid and disappear off in the sea may be disappointed. they do not exist that's according to the oceanic administration. the noaa flat out denied the existence of a half human creature. but good pictures. mitt romney is with his family at their lake house in new hampshire but don't let that fool you. but even on this holiday, she's still on campaign mode. for more on that, let's turn to garrett haake. garrett, very good fourth to you, of course. when we look at mitt romney. he's on the march today, right?

i understand he has a possible veep pick maybe? >> yeah, richard. we're look at that. we're actually looking to get under way eye were the parade here. and the possible vooep, kelly ayotte sheer with her family. she's going to march here. she's not the only short-lifters expected to be in new hampshire this week. we're seeing rob portman of ohio coming up for the new hampshire party on saturday. >> now, he's also got a new web video out about three minutes long and it hits every patriotic tone possible. any danger here from hitting the patriotic theme too hard? >> not likely today, richard. you're seeing it's a web video, it will show up for people who happen to be at home today. searching for mitt romney. you'll see it on their tv screens. really, nobody wants to try to hit too partisan of a tone today. you see the images from the

parade coming out today. >> you know, it's always a balance, as you've been reporting for us of work and play. strategy meetings perhaps going on there in new hampshire. we've got a picture that we've seen a couple times. i want to show it to our viewers coming from the ap. and we've got a glimpse of one of those sessions. any idea in terms of what they may have been talking about? >> that's right. there's really no such thing as a true vacation on the campaign trail and this photo is illustrative of that. and beth myers who is the campaign aide who has been with almost single-handedly with mitt romney for the v.p. search. yes, there is some kind of v.p. work going ones are even this weekend. again, there's really only two people who know the answer to that question at least for now, that is mitt romney and beth myers, both there. >> we are waiting for that

parade to start. you'll be there for us. nbc's garrett haake with mitt romney. we'll try to stop in and get the latest from you later. thanks again, garrett. >> thank you. more on that big question about the romney campaign, that spot number two, who will get into that slot? who will be the v.p.? a number of candidates have been seen on the road. the question is so powerful it can make even the blunt chris christie of new jersey hedge a little. take a listen. >> this is an election with one voter. mitt romney. and he gets to decide who he thinks will be the best vice president of the united states. the fact is if governor romney picks up the phone and calls, you have to answer the call and listen, at least. >> joining us karen finney, nbc political analyst. and susan del percio, a republican strategist. a good fourth to both of you. >> happy fourth of july. >> yeah, we all made it, red,

white and blue we got here today. we just listened to chris christie, of course, he's been discussed. you're an insider. >> i don't think he's going to be the pick. i don't think it's someone who upstages mitt romney. a lot of people wants chris christie and marco rubio. i think you're looking at portman, and governor pawlenty is probably the most likely pick right now. romney paid off a lot of campaign debt. pawlenty has been on the trail with him since last december, he's very comfortable with him. >> what does pawlenty buy romney, what does he balance out? >> he governed a blue state. as a republican. he's a great campaigner. he can be a great attack dog when necessary. i think he can bring it to biden in the debate. >> and conservative credentials, certainly. >> certainly, conservative kred determines. >> karen, as we mentioned,

romney is appearing with senator ayotte this hour in new hampshire. one's got to think, is that a possibility, how serious will that possibility be, as we look at the live pictures wait for the parade to start. what do you think? >> well, remember, that's part of what this v.p. process is about. that is it's not a politically bad thing to be seen with these people and the speculation. look what we saw the frenzy we saw several weeks ago, with regard to marco rubio with is he being vetted, is he not being vetted? the politics are good for romney, as all the conservatives are being discussed because again, it energizes different populations. a lot of folks like kelly ayotte, he's popular in the northeast. he's got the same conservative credentials. it puts a woman on the ticket, potentially. again, it's a good conversation, i think, politically for governor romney to have. although i have to say, i agree with susan, i think we're more likely to see a tim pawlenty or

a rob portman, somebody that we've seen a little bit more on the campaign trail with him. >> so these are all trial balloons? >> of course, they're all trial balloons. like i say, you energize or different parts of the coalition with different names out there. >> it also helps build a strong bench? ist to follow up on what karen was saying. now he have surrogates who can go out and campaign with him. >> like those who are bracketing right now following the president as he makes it to ohio and pennsylvania. susan, romney with the attacks on bain, the issue of outsourcing which the president is hitting hard on romney. or where he stands on health care. all 6 these messages coming out from the president as he hits the president. is chris christie, would he be a good attack dog on those issues? >> i think he can be and he will be. he will be a strong surrogate for the president, not necessarily as a v.p. pick. and the other thing is, as we're

talking about who is following him on the campaign trail this week or the rest of this week, we have jobs numbers coming out friday, that at the end of the day is what the campaign is going to be about. it's not going to be about the veep. >> and we've got until august. when we look at that, karen, we do have some weeks ahead of us. >> yeah. >> who might be that palin? who might be that surprise? >> you know, i think susan would admit that the republican party is kind of -- they are the ghost of sarah palin has meant that we will not see that kind of surprise pick that we might have at one point. again, i think you're going to see mitt romney. look at the way he's run the campaign. he's run it very safe, very cautious. so between the sarah palin bad taste in everybody's mouth that's left over from that experience and just the nature of the way romney's run his campaign, i think you're more likely to see a safer pick which again is someone like a portman, or someone like a tim pawlenty. remember, the speculation is also a fun game and good for the

campaign. you know, as susan said, it's not necessarily going to be, at the end of the day, about who the v.p. is. it will give him a couple of days, you know, bump in the press. and then it does give you another surrogate who is out there on the campaign trail. >> and it depends what the issues of day are when we do get closer to the nomination processe karen, thanks a lot. susan as well. >> thanks, richard. >> thanks, richard. now to the highly anticipated games in london with try weeks away. superstar michael phelps has decided not to compete in the 200-meet free style. he told the baltimore sun that he wanted to preserve his energy for the seven other events he qualified. phelps debut at beijing made him the most decorated olympian. >> as far as dora torres, you may know that she did not make the swim team. the 45-year-old mother just missed the show at the olympics

by less than a second. she leaves behind several records of her own, though, including being the oldest female swimmer ever to compete during the summer games in beijing. and there's a lot of attention on sprinter usain bolt after he lost twice in the trials. some are asking if johan blake may be the world's fastest runner. bolt told them, quote, i may be a little slow, but three weeks will get me in shape. we hear the olympic village is ready, and on that note, have any olympians moved into it yet? >> not yet, certainly getting their reservations ready. 23 days to go. here in london, they're counting down the hours and seconds. the olympic rings gives some idea how the historic marks will

enhance the games. the venue to beach volleyball and the main road leading to buckingham palace will host a marathon. the london organizers say the olympics will turn the city into a giant party with big tv screens in hyde park for those who can't get tickets to the events. the only debate going on now, richard, is about, in fact, security. the plan to place anti-aircraft missiles around the capitol is being opposed, especially by residents of one high-rise apartment block which will get missiles placed on the roof. >> i can't wait to see the venues itself. those are always amazing feats of architecture. pete, thanks so much. the opening ceremony is just three weeks away. we are keeping an eye on the live picture from the white house. and just a few minutes, president obama is expected to speak at a naturalization ceremony on this july 4th for some u.s. service members. we'll bring that to you live on

msnbc. first, one of the handy fourth of july facts. did you know that one of the united states current first-born daughters malia obama born on july 4th 14 years ago. since her dad was elected president, malia has celebrated her birthday with hundreds of military families on the white house lawn. kind of old school for her. she did do it again today. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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britney and robert burk quest are the program's founders. when you look at them, they're not kids. how are you hold? >> i'm 20 and britney's 21. we're growing. you. >> your program has accomplished a number of things. you've also raised more than $7 million. you've provided as well, approximately 12,000 calling cards per week to solgdiers, where did you get the idea? >> we heard a soldier with an 8,000 cell phone bill trying to call home to his loved ones. we just knew we needed to do something. it starts out small, car washes, piggy bank funds. and we found that thousands of soldiers were having the same problems trying to call home and

having massive bills. we wanted to create an organization that could service those men. >> britney, i continue to look at the statistics here. they're amazing. you have provided troops with more than 2 million pre-paid calling cards. how do you get these calling cards to the servicemembers? >> well, we actually need to be contacted with the military or the families because we aren't able to find their locations. just for safe placele. >> britney and rob, if you could please stand by, president obama is now coming out, he's at the white house honoring servicemembers during a snarlization ceremony. as they get started there. >> ladies and gentlemen, the united states marine band. ♪

[ playing "the star-spangled banner" ] ♪ ♪

please be seated. mr. president, madam secretary, distinguished candidates for citizenship and special guests, good morning. it is a special morning and a distinct honor for me to be here. i'm myself a refugee to this great nation and a naturalized citizen. i now have the privilege to serve as director to u.s. immigration services, the component of the homeland security that administers out this administration's benefits. on this july 4th, we commemorate not only the 236th commemoration, but also celebrate the meeting of our citizenship. among us are 25 exceptional

individuals who chose to serve the country and who took an oath to support and defend the constitution before sharing fully the rights and opportunities it provides. their commitment and dedication to the values we cherish as citizens should stand as an inspiration to us all. i will now proceed to call the candidates' 17 country it's. candidate, when your country of nationality is called please stand. belize. bolivia. cameron. cape verde. colombia. ecuador. el salvador. ghana. guatemala. guinea. >> the white house correspondent kristen walker is also there watching the ceremony for us. it's a naturalization ceremony with the president, as well as the department of homeland

secretary janet napolitano also there for the ceremony. they normally start the ceremonies including names the countries as we're hearing right now. >> that's right. they're going to name the countries and you'll see the 25 u.s. servicemembers be sworn in as u.s. citizens. we expect president obama to make remarks, that's what we're waiting for and we also expect janet napolitano to deliver the host of regions. they've held this at the white house, but this is the first one to be held on independence day. the timing is interesting, richard, because it coming a few weeks after president obama announced that his administration would block the deportation of 800,000 who came here illegally as children. >> kristen, let's listen in to the ceremony right now. janet napolitano about to start

it. >> i'll hereby declare by oath. >> i hereby delclare by oath. >> that i absolutely and entirely. >> renounce and addajur. >> all allegiance and fidelity. >> to any foreign prince. >> potenty, state or sovereignty. >> of whom or which i have heretofore been a subject or subject. >> been a subject or citizen. >> that i will support and defend. >> that i will support and defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> constitution of the united states. >> and the laws of the united states. >> and the law of the united states of america. >> against all enemies. >> against all enemies. >> foreign and domestic. >> foreign and domestic. >> that i will bear true faith. >> that i will bear true faith. >> and allegiance to the same. >> and leagallegiance to the sa.

>> that will bear arms. >> i will bear arms. >> on behalf of the united states. >> on behalf of the united states. >> and under law. >> and under law. >> that in the armed forces of the united states. >> in the armeds fors of the united states. >> when required by the law. >> when required by the law. >> that will i perform work of natural importance. >> i will perform work of natural importance. >> under civilian direction. >> under civilian direction. >> when required by law. >> when required by law. >> that i take this obligation freely. >> that i take this obligation freely. >> without any mental reservation. >> without any mental reservation. >> or purpose of invasion. >> or purpose of invasion. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> congratulations. [ applause ]

>> please be seated. congratulations to our newest american citizens. today, you have earned all the right its and responsibilities t come with being a citizen of the united states. america is now your country. you have worked so hard to get here. you should be as proud of this moment and this achievement, just as i am proud to call you my fellow citizens. and there's no more fitting day on which to do this, than to join the american family, than the fourth of july, when we celebrate the 236th anniversary of our declaration of independence. this is all the more so because these new citizens are members of the armed forces, all of the 25 candidates here this morning.

our nation thanks you for your service. we owe the freedoms we all enjoy to the sacrifices of men and women like you. men and women who have already sacrificed so much for our nation and have served her so honorably, even before she had become your own. you have put your lives on the line for our country, even before you could officially be called american. and all of us are honored to celebrate this moment with you and your families on this special day. america is a nation of immigrants. and we are proud of that fact. since 2001, u.s. citizenship and immigration services has naturalized over 80,000 membersed armed forces bringing immigration services to our troops wherever they served. and since 2009, we have offered

noncitizen enlistees, the opportunity to naturalize before completing basic training so they can graduate as american citizens. department of homeland security is now working with the department of defense so that our naturalization and basic training will be in place at all of our service branches by the end of the year. and we will continue to do everything we can to expedite the naturalization process for individuals like you, who have already given so much to our nation. so let me offer my congratulations to each of you. all of us are proud to call you our fellow citizens. and now it is my distinct honor and privilege to introduce to you the president of the united states, barack obama. mr. president. >> thank you. good morning. everybody. >> all: good morning.

>> secretary napolitano, director mallorcas. distinguished family and friends. welcome to the white house. happy fourth of july. what a perfect way to celebrate america's birthday, the world's oldest democracy, with some of our newest citizens. i have to tell you just personally, this is one of my favorite things to do. it brings me great joy and inspiration because it reminds us that we are a country that is bound together not simply by ethnicity or bloodlines, but by fidelity to a set of i.d.s. and as members of our military, you raised your hand and took an oath of service. it is an honor for me to serve as your commander in chief.

today, you raised your hand, and have taken an oath of citizenship. and i could not be prouder to be among the first to greet you as my fellow americans. looking back, it was an act of extraordinary audacity. a few dozen delegates in that hall in philadelphia, daring to defy the mightiest empire in the world declaring that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. 236 years later, we marvel at america's story. from a string of 13 colonies to 50 states, from sea to shining sea. from a fragile experiment in democracy, to a beacon of freedom that still lights the world. from a socie